Tag: family

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 28

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 28

SEVEN SALLIE

THERE IS A GOD IN HEAVEN WHO REVEALS SECRETS (Daniel 2:28)

            I had just opened my mouth to speak when a majestic voice from the heavens filled our ears. It was like the sound of rippling water, deep and melodious. There were a half dozen of us on the deck overlooking C. S. Lewis’s back yard. My companions all looked at me with surprise, as if the words had come from me. But then they turned to the sky, knowing that someone as puny as me could ever vocalize in that manner.

            “It is done!” the sky seemed to declare. But we all knew it was a fulfillment of Revelation 16:17 as the seventh and final plague fell. So none of us were surprised when verse eighteen was fulfilled moments later.

            Yet we were not afraid as the longest, loudest peels of thunder roared across the blue- charcoal gray sky. We gazed around in awe, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up and my skin prickle. Then lightening like nothing we had ever seen, a light show no earthly technology could ever duplicate strobed to and fro.  

            Then came the biggest earthquake in earth’s history. The trees began to sway and the ground trembled. The groaning of the earth made me think of the Jolly Green Giant with indigestion. We all gripped the sides of our chairs as if on an amusement park ride. Yet we were not afraid.

            Our faith was such that we knew we were protected. We were all on the archetypical Ark, if you please. So we were the opposite of afraid, we were in awe, even excited! We had preached the second coming of Jesus for years. Many accused us of crying wolf. Most trusted in their traditions rather than Bible truth. Most followed the teachings of man rather than studying the Word of God themselves like the noble Bereans (Acts 17:11).

            One man had told me a year or two earlier. “You’re waiting for a show that is never gonna happen. The Bible is mythology.”

            Well sir, the lights have just gone down, and the curtain is about to go up! 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 was on the verge of being fulfilled, and we had been exercising verse eighteen which instructed ‘Therefore comfort one another with these words.’

            We did this right up to the voice, the thunder, the lightning and the earthquake. Mostly by sharing testimonies. We heard one more only moments before the last plague fell. This one was more about enduring love rather than the sweetness of a beautiful dog playing matchmaker. The miracle of this enduring love is that neither of the two individuals knew they were inadvertently waiting for the other.

            Like Mick, Luke Daniels was the lead singer of a Christian band. Like Mick and Lindsey, Luke and Hannah’s romance began in full force after one of Luke’s shows.

            “My dad was career military, so we moved a lot,” Hannah said. She had long, nut-brown hair and large, doe like amber eyes. “What made it both better and worse for me was being an only child.”

            “What do you mean by better and worse?” Zella asked.

            “Are you skipping ahead to your wedding vows?” I asked with a little smile.

            Zella smirked at me as she gave me a sideways glance. “Do you think you’re funny?”

            “It was part of our vows.” I defended because I was indeed trying at a little humor, albeit unsuccessfully.

            “Hannah was referring to moving frequently and being an only child,” Zella explained to me as if I were a child. “She hadn’t even gotten to meeting Luke yet. Let alone marriage vows.”

            “Gotcha,” I replied feeling a little dumb. Trying to be funny is an odd thing. You feel brilliant when everyone laughs and like an idiot when it falls flat. “Sorry Hannah, please proceed.”

            “No problem, Seven,” she smiled. “What I meant by worse, was obviously not having a sibling to share and comfort with the anxiety of moving to new places and in particular new schools. What was better was learning to find comfort and solace in God. A friend that sticks closer than a brother, if you please (Proverbs 18:24).

            “When I was twelve, in anticipation of yet another move, I prayed like never before,” Hannah told us with such earnestness I perceived she was back in the moment, experiencing the emotions she felt back then. “The thing that made it extra worse this time was adolescence. It wasn’t very kind to me. I was gangly and clumsy. I had braces, glasses, and a bit of acne.

            “Whenever we moved, my parents tried to find a conservative, non-denominational church.  My dad got stationed in Georgia, and we moved into a small town ten miles from the base. He rented a house from a guy who in turn turned him on to his church, a place called Meadowvale Church of the Open Bible. That’s where I met Luke and his brother Matt for the first time.

            “I actually had a huge crush on Matt when we first started attending,” Hannah laughed. “He was fifteen, spiky blonde hair, blue eyes, and an amazing guitar and piano player. He gave lessons at the local music store.

            “Although younger, my age actually, Luke was out going and athletic. I guess you could say he was a more macho image of his older brother. They were both nice to me, but Luke intimidated me. My first impression was that he was the popular type. The type that often would tease and bully me.”

            A look of sadness came into her eyes. “I never understood why so many popular kids pick on the less fortunate. They seemingly had so much going for them, why did they have to make life more difficult for those that didn’t? I suppose it just proved that in reality they didn’t have so much going for them after all. It’s like their image was a facade and at heart they were every bit as insecure as those they picked on. Probably more so.”

            “Immaturity plays a role also,” Luke added.

            “We moved to Meadowvale in the middle of the summer,” Hannah continued. “So I had a few weeks to adjust before the start of sixth grade. And the adjustment was an answer to prayer. There were a couple other kids at the church that were our age. Luke and Matt’s cousin John and a spicey redhead named Cassidy. John’s brother Mark was Matt’s age, and the four cousins ended up forming a band together.

            “For the first time I started a new school with friends. Then I had an immediate hiccup. Two days into school, we were playing dodgeball in gym class. It was scary for me. Other schools didn’t play dodgeball, let alone using actual playground balls instead of nerfs.”

            “One of the benefits of a smaller community,” Luke interjected.

            “Some benefit,” Hannah added dryly. “Right off the bat I got hit in the forehead. My glasses went flying, and I stumbled and fell. But the worst part was the panic of embarrassment. I was sure I was gonna be laughed at. Also, if I wasn’t already classified a nerd, I would be now.

            “But I only heard a few snickers before Luke was by my side, putting an arm around me and asking if I was alright. He helped me up and retrieved my glasses. Unfortunately I wasn’t out, the boy who threw head high was. But then Luke told me to stay by him so he could protect me.”

            Hannah smiled fondly at Luke. “So, I wasn’t out, and my crush on Matt Daniels transferred to falling in love with Luke Daniels. And that love only grew as he and I, John and Cassidy became weekend pals, playing in the woods behind the church, going for horseback rides on the Daniels’ family farm, and my favorite, getting rides on Luke’s dirt bike motorcycle, where I got to hug Luke from behind, and hold him tight as we zipped up trails and down ravines.

            “But then two years after we moved to Meadowvale, my dad got transferred to Fort Hood Texas. I had never been so disappointed in life. Those two years in Meadowvale were the best years by far, until I met Luke again seven years later.”

            “You two didn’t keep in touch?” I asked before Zella could.

            “I tried,” Hannah said, giving her husband a scornful, yet playful look. “But Luke only responded a few times and I eventually gave up.”

            “What can I say, I was fourteen,” Luke shrugged. “But I gave her a sendoff that kept us subconsciously bound for all our years of separation.”

            I opened my mouth, but sound came out of my wife’s instead. “What kind of sendoff?”

            “They had a going away party at the church,” Hannah related happily. “Luke took me out to the woods and kissed me for the first time.”

            “Then a second, third, and fourth,” he laughed.

            “Those kisses sealed the deal for me,” Hannah said. “My time in Meadowvale must have given me confidence. The rest of my school career finished with very little harassment. I ended up going to a college in the Pacific northwest. I was a late bloomer and by then I was getting quite a bit of male attention, of which I mostly ignored.”

            “Because of Luke?” Zella interjected.

            “I think it was a couple things,” Hannah explained. “Mostly nobody ever came close to matching the popular preteen that wasn’t afraid to comfort a distraught nerdy girl after she was embarrassed. But then also, I became cynical. I mean, so many guys mocked and made fun of me as a girl. But then after I transformed into a, forgive me for sounding vain, an attractive woman, the same type of guys tried to charm and sweet talk me.

            “Anyway, let me get to meeting Luke again. The seven years in between are not all that fascinating. I studied a lot and socialized a little. But I did become good friends with a girl I met in Texas, where I finished high school. She went to a Christian college in Washington, so I tagged along.

            “We became friends with some other girls we met, but I usually stayed aloof from going out. They were good girls as far as that goes, but their primary interest was doing things where the opportunity to meet the opposite sex was prevalent.

            “So during our junior year this Christian rock tour was stopping by our campus. Mick’s band Cornerstone was going to be there, and so was Luke’s. I just didn’t know it at first. I didn’t even know Luke was in a band with his brother and two cousins. So when my girlfriends tried to get me to go, I initially declined.

            “Then three days before the show, I’m walking past my roommate’s dresser, and she has half a dozen C.D.’s sprawled out on top. One of them caught my eye. It was called ‘The Band of Daniels.’ And on the front were four guys who looked older but familiar.”

            “Obviously the name of our band was both a play of our name, combined with the book in the Bible,” Luke cut in. “And obviously we knew the famous stories. Daniel and the lion’s den, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. But I didn’t understand the deep prophetic meeting of the book until we met Arlo Aldo several years ago.”

            Then he looked at his wife. “Sorry Hon, go ahead.”

            “Rhonda, my best friend from Texas and college roommate didn’t know that one of the C.D.’s she had was the guys I knew in Georgia. One in particular the boy I loved. The guy she had heard me talk about countless times as I reminisced about my glorious days in Meadowvale.

            “But I kept my mouth shut about knowing them, in particular Luke. I was a fourteen year old middle school student when I moved away. I was now a twenty-one year old premed student living clear across the country. I was sure I was no more than a distant memory.”

            “She couldn’t have been more wrong,” Luke said. “I mean, I did think I’d never see her again. But a distant memory? Far from it. She left an impression on my soul that would last a life time. I often felt no girl could fill the void she left in my life when she left. But I believe it was the Holy Spirt that caused her to brand my mind until we met up again. I think that’s why I was so picky when entertaining the possibility of the opposite sex.

            “Hannah’s sweetness and wholesomeness drew me in like a bear to honey. Plus she had the prettiest eyes I’d ever seen, and very kissable lips. The rest of her was just like she said ‘nerdy beyond compare.’”

            Hannah gave him a playful whap, and they both laughed.

            “You’ve heard of guilt by association?” Hannah asked.

            “Sure I have, “Zella replied. “I’ve experienced it time and again by being married to Seven.”

            They all laughed, but I held mine in so I could give my wife quality stink eye. She mouthed ‘sorry’ and I couldn’t help giving in to the smile I repressed.

            “Anyway, knowing the Daniels’ from church was like credibility by association. They were like the noble four guys in the Bible book of Daniel that their band was sort of named for. They set a precedent for our school. Bullying was pretty much nonexistent.”

            “Keep in mind it was a small school,” Luke said. “Only about forty in our graduating class.”

            “So we were standing outside in line for the concert,” Hannah continued. “I was feeling anxious about seeing Luke as well as my secret. Then I saw a fellow nerd from my Meadowvale days come out of a trailer pulling a black crate that had Matt Daniel’s name stamped in white. So I hollered, ‘Grant.’

            “He turned his head briefly, but assumed he wasn’t the Grant being called for by a female in line. After all he was two thousand miles away from Meadowvale. So I tried again using his last name, ‘Grant Sims.’

            “Then he stopped and looked my direction. I waved. He was, I don’t know, fifty feet away. He began to walk toward me and stopped ten feet away, squinted and put hands on his hips. ‘Hannah? Is that you?’

            “One and them same, I told him with a big smile. He took of his baseball cap and laughed. ‘Well, I’ll be.’ I went to him and we hugged. He reminded me of chubby Chet Morton from the old ‘Hard Boys’ series.

            He told us the guys were about to start sound check, and asked me and my girlfriends if we wanted back stage passes and to come watch. All three of my girlfriends stood with their mouths hanging open in disbelief.

            “Let me take Matt his extra guitars and I’ll get y’all back stage passes.”

            “My girlfriends looked at me like I had two heads. So I shrugged and explained that I knew the band when I was in middle school. None of them were ever prone to violence, but Rhonda grabbed me by the shoulders and scolded me for not telling them I knew the guys in ‘The Band of Daniels.’

            “It was general admission, so we got the best seats in the house. The band was in the midst of a song that would end up on their second CD. When they finished, I noticed Grant walk on stage and say something to Luke. His head whipped in our direction and my heart fluttered. Then it pounded when he moved in our direction, climbed up on a riser, put hands on the railing by where we were sitting and stared at me in disbelief.

            “I smiled and waved, then he grinned and vaulted the railing. As if on cue I stood. The cute boy who kissed seven years earlier was now a gorgeous man who hugged me tight to himself. Even after all those years I felt the love. I also felt eyes on me.

            “When we separated from our embrace, my three girlfriends were watching in incredulity. Three months later ‘The Band of Daniels’ finished their tour. Three weeks after that, Luke and I were married and my three girlfriends who witnessed our reunion were my three bridesmaids.”

            “Wow,” Zella said. “So the vast majority of your courtship happened when you were in middle school.”

            “It did,” Hannah giggled, shrugged. “But when you know you know.”

            “That’s the way it was with Zella and me. When we knew we knew.”

            “Welllllll,” Zella drawled with a wince, but then she laughed when I made a pout lip.

            I opened my mouth to speak, but another voice was heard. Something beyond human utterance. Followed by thunderings and lightenings like nothing we had ever seen!

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 24

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 24

SEVEN SALLIE

GOD IS OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH, A VERY PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE. THEREFORE WE WILL NOT FEAR THOUGH THE EARTH BE REMOVED. (Psalm 46:1, 2)

            The sunset was bizarrely beautiful. I’d never seen anything like it. It was both breath taking, yet ominous. Who would have thought a sunset could pose such a contradiction in our minds. It was like a living object lesson of Psalm 85:10. ‘Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have met together.’

            Brilliant reds, greens, yellows, pinks, blues, and violets swirled together. Have you ever noticed how fast a colorful sunset can change into darkness? Well this sunset changed and morphed colors five times faster than usual. Yet darkness came five times slower than usual. And the color schemes just kept changing and moving.

             The fourth plague fell the previous day. Unrepentant humanity was scorched with great heat (Revelation 16:8, 9). Yet those of us who had the seal of God were protected. It was as if we were encased in an unseen bubble. The cells of God’s people scattered throughout the world experienced the same protection. Our friends and family back in Eastern Iowa were experiencing a similar shield that we were. I was so grateful to hear my daughter’s voice as she related this information to me.

            We had all had a restless night as the judgements of God continued to fall. Not that we feared for ourselves, for we loved Jesus (John 14:15) and had kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12). We were concerned for the unprotected. We mourned for friends and loved ones that sided with the commandments of men rather than the commandments of God.

            We took courage that the plagues indicated that the second coming of Jesus Christ was very, very soon.  The most stunning sunset our eyes had ever seen made us think of our Lord coming in the clouds of heaven. Not in some secret rapture.  

            John the Revelator tells us in the very first chapter, verse seven, that every eye will see Him. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that the Lord Himself will descend with a shout, with the voice of an arch angel, and with the trumpet of God. In Acts chapter one, when Jesus arose to heaven, verse eleven tells us that He would come in like manner.

            1 Thessalonians 4:18 tells us we should comfort one another regarding the second coming of Christ. Revelation 21:4 assures us that God would wipe away every tear and that there would be no more death, sorrow, or crying. There would be no more pain, for the former things will have passed away.

            Inga, C.S., who was formerly known as Jackson, Zella and I were sitting on C. S.‘s deck. We were comforting each other about the second coming of Christ as we watched the unique sunset. We were all excited, yet troubled by the falling of the plagues. So we were exercising the Bible instruction to exhort one another daily (Hebrews 3:13).

            It must have worked. C.S. got a boyish grin on his face as he took hold of Inga’s hand. “Come see, a quarter mile through the woods is a large pond. It wasn’t affected by the third plague. Sunsets are amazing there. This one will be absolutely phenomenal.”

            But Inga resisted and frowned. “This is the most interesting sunset I’ve ever seen; but I don’t like what it represents.”

            C. S. frowned back. “What do you mean?”

            “The reason the sunset is so unique is because the fourth plague has fallen. That means  fallen humanity has been scorched with great heat.”

            “Don’t think about that,” he petitioned. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. God is a righteous judge. Think of it as Christ’s imminent return being incredibly soon.”

            “C. S. is right, Inga,” I added. “The loud cry of the three angels messages was sufficiently broadcast. Everyone had their chance to accept or reject the God of Creation.”

            Inga pondered this for a minute. A girlish grin grew onto her face as she did so, and then they were off, walking hand in hand toward the woods. Zella smiled sentimentally as she watched them while I watched her. Her beautiful ebony skin glowed in the fast changing but slowly fading sunlight. “I think love has been rekindled.”

            “Were they in love the first time?” I asked.

            “There must have been something.”

            “Yeah, but Inga despised him for almost a decade. What we’re witnessing is new, fresh.”

            “No, I say there was something. Circumstances all those years ago just caused Inga to take a step back on her feelings.”

            “More like a leap.”

            “Life’s a strange trip,” she said with a shrug.

            I put arm around her and kissed her mouth. Aunt Holly and Benny were at the neighbors, so we were alone. I kissed her again and she giggled. “No wonder you talked Inga into going with C. S.”

            “I don’t know that I talked her into it,” I grinned. “But I was hoping for some alone time with the most beautiful woman on the planet.”

            “Aw, you’re sweet,” she said aiming a big eyed smile my way. I arose and moved to sit on her lap. She stopped me by placing both hands on my back side. “I don’t think so!”

            “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

            “Sit back down,” she ordered. Then she arose and moved to sit on my lap. Unlike her, I allowed it. To my immense pleasure, she kissed me and I mean deeply. I wrapped my arms around her and planned on much more of the same. But it wasn’t to be.

            Inga and C. S. had entered the woods that surrounded the acreage via a trail to the southwest. From the northeast side of the woods we heard the crunch of leaves, the snap of a twig and the murmur of voices. Half a dozen people began to emerge from the woods and Zella sprang from my lap as though it were on fire… Drat!

            The little band was led by Benny and his two friends, a boy and a girl. Holly was with the children’s parents. The couple appeared to be close to Zella and myself in age. They made their way to the deck and Holly introduced us to Mick and Lindsey Wadena.

            Mick was medium height, burly and had thinning blonde hair. Lindsey had short strawberry blond hair. She reminded me of Mary Poppins, but it was probably the old fashioned dress she was wearing.

             “Wow, you’re Seven Sallie,” Mick declared.

            I opened my mouth to reply, but Zella beat me to it. With an exaggeratedly deep voice she said, “Yes indeed, it is he, the venerable Seven Sallie.”

            They all laughed and I looked at my wife. She giggled. “You always look like Daffy Duck when you’re exasperated.”

            They all laughed again, and I couldn’t help chuckling along with them. Then something happened that I didn’t know how to take. Mick was commenting on the strange sunset, but I was  overhearing Lindsey discreetly whisper to Holly, “I thought you said he looks like George Clooney.”

            “I just meant sort of,” Holly whispered back.

            Was this a compliment or a dis? Oh well, I wasn’t even meant to hear it.

            “So you know Arlo Aldo?” I asked Mick.

            “I do indeed,” he replied. “Eli Alderson also.”

            Eli was Arlo’s bandmate. They were both in a Satanic band for many years, and then after their conversion they started a Christian band. Mick rehashed what C. S. had already told me about Arlo vacationing up here and teaching them about the Biblical Sabbath. Then he went on to explain about him and C. S. sharing their information with others in their neck of the woods.

            “As a matter of fact,” Mick was saying. “I think it would be a great comfort if you talked to some friends of ours, Jack and Jill Hill. They…”

            “Jack and Jill Hill?” I asked. “Hill is really their last name? As in Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pale of water?”

            “Yeah, it really is,” he laughed. “Sorry, I guess I’m just used to it after all these years. They have an interesting love story. They became close friends as kids, preteens actually. Jack went by Johnny back then. But then when he and Jill started hanging out, his friends and siblings started calling him Jack to go with her Jill. His dad was John Senior, but went by Jack, so I guess it was a bit of a combination.

            “Anyway, Jill moved away, and they didn’t see each other again for several years. Then Jill showed up at one of his shows a thousand miles from where they first got to know each other. I actually witnessed their reunion. Our bands were touring together at the time. It was a pretty special, memorable moment.”

            “Your own coming together with Lindsey was pretty special too,” Aunt Holly said.

            “Yeah, I suppose it was,” Mick replied, looking fondly at his wife.

            Lindsey seemed like a pretty serious, no nonsense type of person. But she grinned and told us. “Would you believe a dog played cupid?”

            It took me a couple seconds to absorb a dog playing match maker in a romance. However, it wasn’t something I was foreign to. Zella had a rescue dog, a chocolate Labrador named Free. She had been horribly abused. She was blind in one eye and walked with a limp, among other things.

            Free disliked and was afraid of male human beings. The bigger and more macho, the more her disdain. Then one day a big, tall, muscular man with a deep voice came into Zella’s herb and health food shop. Free was in the store that day because Zella’s living quarters upstairs was being painted.

            Although she had warned Billy Bob Booker to keep his distance from Free, the gentle bear of a man couldn’t resist the wounded animal. To Zella’s utter shock, Free couldn’t resist him either. After she witnessed her dog offer up her belly to be scratched by the big man, she had to tell her best friend Willa what happened. In turn, Willa couldn’t resist wanting to get to know Billy Bob herself.

            I looked at my wife. Her stunned expression turned to one of curiosity. “You two were match made by a dog?”

            “Yeah,” they both said at the same time, and  then chuckled.

            “Please tell us about it,” Zella petitioned eagerly. She sat back in her chair, crossed her arms, and anticipated their story.

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 23

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 23

INGA LIKAS (AKA INGA COGNITO)

IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, THEY ARE A NEW CREATION. OLD THINGS HAVE PASSED AWAY. BEHOLD, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

            It was too wonderful to take in! I moved about in a daze. If ever reality felt like a dream, it was now. How do I even describe meeting my son, a beautiful nine year old boy that I thought had died in infancy?

            How about reuniting with a man I despised, having believed for all these years that he was responsible for our son’s death? Then I find out that the dark, nihilistic boy that impregnated me, turned out to become a serious minded Bible believing Christian. But was it possible for me to like, or even trust a guy I had subconsciously trained my brain to loathe for almost a decade?

            Jackson and his Aunt Holly invited us to spend the night in their home. The afternoon turned into evening as I got to know my son and also became reacquainted with Jackson. But I use the word reacquainted loosely. For Jackson and I were not the same people that knew each other all those years ago. Plus, our relationship had been closer to two ships passing in the night rather than anything with real substance.

            However, over the next forty-eight hours Jackson and I got to know each other better than our year together a decade earlier. Our association as teenagers was filled with insecurities and secrecy. The glue that kept us together was lust. This proved to be a rather flimsy adhesive.

The bond that pulled us together all these years later was Christ and mutual love for our son.

            As we caught up with each other, I didn’t have a whole lot to share, or even want to, until I came to the part when I met Seven Sallie at a courthouse. My life up until then had been like that of a vagabond gypsy. I never stayed in one place long. Jackson’s existence was quite different.

            As I learned his story, my feelings for him changed like from night to day. I went from loathing the man I thought he was, to loving the man he actually is. Although our relationship was brief and long ago, it was a hard adjustment referring to him by his changed name. He said he changed his name more out of distancing himself from a dysfunctional family rather than concern about being found. But my mouth hung open in a grin when he told me what he changed it to.

            “C. S. Lewis,” he had said. Then he smirked when he saw my response and said, “What?”

            “You changed your name to that of the famed Christian author, Clive Staples Lewis?”

            “I beg to differ,” he said, raising a finger. “I changed it to that of my mother’s and Aunt Holly’s father, Charles Scott Lewis. But in all honesty, the English writer was also a motive. He is my favorite author, and Benny’s too. He loved the Narnia series.”

            At the mention of this small aspect of my son’s life, my heart ached at how much I had missed. His first steps, his first words. Might they have been ‘Mama’ had I been there?

            “Back home a dear friend of mine’s name is Lewis,” I said, and then pondered one of my words. Home.

            Until I met the Sallie’s, I never really had a home. For home is where love is, and I felt loved by everyone. And I loved everyone in return. The Sallie’s, the Storms, Seven’s daughter Sevenia, Louis Lewis. Sure, my sister, brother and I loved each other. But it was more of a looking out for each other, since our mother only loved herself, and we lived in something like dorms.

            “This Lewis you speak of, what’s her first name?”

            “Oh, it’s he, not she.”

            What was that look that came over Jackson’s face? Jealousy? I’m sorry, although our relationship had been brief, I always knew and thought of C. S. Lewis as Jackson. But out of respect for the main reason he changed his name, I made myself begin to think of him as C. S.

            “I see, okay, what’s his name then?”

            “Louis.”

            “I meant his first name.”

            “It’s Louis.”

            “Okay, I thought you meant his last name was Louis.”

            “It is.”

            A baffled look came over his face. He scratched his head, opened his mouth, and closed it. I started laughing, I was messing with him a little bit. As I giggled, I subconsciously reached out and took hold of his hand. We were sitting across from each other on his deck in a couple of deck chairs.

            His eyes went to our joined hands. Then they turned up to my eyes. What was that look, tenderness? I didn’t know what to make of it and gently pulled my hand away. “Both his first and last names are Louis (Lewis).”

            I spelled the two for him and he burst out laughing. “You’re kidding?”

            “I am not. He’s actually Zella’s cousin,” I said, pointing to her. She and Seven were talking with Holly at the kitchen table where they were having a Bible study with his aunt. Benny was playing with two neighboring kids in the large yard. “He’s a few months younger than Zella. His parents thought it was cute how her first name rhymed with her last, LaStella. So his parents called him Louis.”

            “Interesting,” he replied.

            “Another interesting thing. He was a police Lieutenant, so we all called him Triple Lou. But then he got fired, so we all dropped the triple.”

            “Why’d he get fired?”

            “He was in charge of Sunday law enforcement when Sunday laws first came into effect. But then, mostly through Seven’s influence, he began studying the Sabbath in the Bible and became convicted of the issues at stake. Namely, the Sabbath God instituted at Creation on the seventh day vs. the sabbath of man’s creation, the Venerable Day of the Sun, Sunday.”

            “So he lost his job over it?”

            “Not at first. He had himself removed from his position. But then as Sunday laws became stricter and stricter, he actually got arrested over mandatory worship.”

            He nodded and a smile eased onto his face. Then his hand came toward mine and he took hold of it, squeezing gently. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you again, Inga.”

            Looking at him was surreal. Obviously he seemed older, yet he was so familiar. I had suspected he died his hair black all those years ago, but I genuinely thought the blue eyes looking at me now were dark brown back then, not colored contacts. I relished his hand in mine. I even longed to kiss him. But those feelings also opened the door for him to seduce me all those years ago. I eased my hand out of his.

            He smiled sadly. “I want you to know something. You’re the only female I have ever been with, you know, intimately been with.”

            Seven Sallie and I were two of a kind. Before I could stop my mouth, I asked, “Are you gay?”

            “No,” he replied with a smirk. “What with raising Benny, I didn’t date much. How about you?”

            I snorted. “I never stayed in one place long enough to establish a bond.”

            “But there were guys?”

            “Not really. I have never been on birth control, so you’re also the only one I ever, you know,” I explained. But not wanting to delve any deeper than that, I quickly changed the subject. “So how did you become a Christian?”

            “Well, having Benny was a start. Having this little creature to protect, that was half from me, shifted me away from a nihilistic life view. Then another shift came living with Aunt Holly, who is not only Christian in name, but devout.”

            “Can I ask what you’ve done for a living?”

            “I had a trust fund that I was able to access after I turned eighteen. As you know, I was eighteen when Benny was born. I withdrew my trust fund the very morning of our… I’m sorry, my escape with Benny.”

            “How much?”

            He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “A million dollars.”

            I gasped. “So you never had to work? You were a millionaire and I was homeless?”

            “You knew my dad was mega wealthy. One million isn’t even one percent of his financial worth. You must not believe me when I say it was completely my intention for us to flee together.”

            “I’m sorry. I do believe you.”

            “So, I bought this acreage here, and a tourist boat.”

            “A tourist boat?”

            “I love Lake Superior,” he shrugged. “I grew up by the Pacific ocean, so I love the water.”

            Another irony between now and then. Then Jackson always had pale skin, despite living near the ocean in southern California. Now he was tan while living in northern Minnesota. Go figure.

            He shrugged. “I didn’t say I was a surfer. But up here I am a boater. Captain of my own little ship if you please. And it paved a way to have an income and enjoy the water at the same time.”

            “You must not be happy with the last two plagues, what with the waters turning to blood.”

            “Yeah, it’s not good for business. But it’s not like the Bible didn’t warn us and prepare us.”

            “Very true.”

            “So I piloted the boat and a guy named Mick Wadena, who’s my neighbor across the woods, guided the tour up and down the shore. He was natural at talking to people. He used to be the lead singer of a Christian rock band. As a matter of fact, those are his kids playing with Benny. Another bonus having him as a partner is he’s more than twenty years older than me, so it added maturity to our little crew. I was barely twenty when I bought the boat.”

            “You say he was in a Christian band. Did he avoid the first plague?”

            “He did. But when we met, we both observed Sunday. Mick was also instrumental in my Christian growth, besides my Aunt Holly. So about five or six years ago, an old friend of his from his band days came up and stayed with him for a few weeks. He started teaching us about prophecy and the Sabbath.

            “Mick’s friend and I also bonded over shared experiences with the occult. He helped me through some ramifications I still had dealt with. You see, before he was a Christian, he was in a Satanic band. For him it was more like a gimmick. For me I grew up around it. But we still suffered something like PSTD when we separated from the demonic. I guess you could say it was something like guilt by association.”

            “Was his name Arlo Aldo?”

            C. S. Raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Yeah, are you a fan of his music or something?”

            I suppose I was, but that wasn’t the point. “I know him.”

            “You know Arlo Aldo?” He frowned.

            “I should say I do. His son is married to a good friend of mine. She’s also the daughter and stepdaughter of Seven and Zella,” I told him as I point at the couple sitting with his aunt again.

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 22

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 22

ZELLA LaSTELLA-SALLIE

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD ENCAMPS ALL AROUND THOSE WHO FEAR HIM AND DELIVERS THEM. OH TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD. BLESSED IS THE PERSON WHO TRUSTS IN HIM. (Psalm 34:7, 8)

            It was right up there with the most emotional encounters I had ever witnessed. Inga stared absolutely dumfounded at her nine year old son. A son she hadn’t known existed. Her arctic blue eyes, a unique pair of windows to the soul I thought could never be duplicated, gazed into an identical pair of the boy.

            He had asked Inga if she was his mother. But Inga was so stunned, she was speechless. The silence as the two took each other in with awe made me feel compelled to break the quiet. I wanted to shout, ‘yes, Inga is your mother!’ But it wasn’t my place to do something. It was Inga’s right and privilege alone. Maybe the boy’s father. We hadn’t really known his story yet. Only his brief relationship with Inga many years ago.

            Thankfully my brain responded quickly. If I felt a compulsion to speak, what about my husband! A man known to speak before his brain gave him permission. I clasped a hand over Seven’s mouth just in time. Whatever he was about to say came out as a muffled “Wumph.”

            Finally Inga’s paralysis broke. With a desperate croak, she asked the boy, “Are you Benjamin?”

            “Yeah,” he replied quietly.

            “Yes, I believe I am your mother,” she croaked, then looked at Jackson as if for conformation.

            Jackson put a hand on Benjamin’s head, gently rubbing his dark brown, wavy hair that was another trait of Inga. Then he said, “She’s most definitely your mother, Son.”

            “Papa,” Benjamin began to tell Inga. “I mean my dad said that it wasn’t your fault that you have been… Absent. I’ve always wished I could meet you.”

            Benjamin took a tentative step forward. “Can I give you a hug?”

            Inga coughed out a sob but laughed as tears poured out of her eyes. “Yes, oh yes!”

            Inga’s usual attire was jeans, either a t-shirt or flannel shirt, and converse sneakers. But today she was wearing a black and white gingham dress with black and brown saddle shoes. Inga wasn’t all that used to dresses. As she knelt down to receive an embrace from her long lost son, her knees tangled in the garment, and she began to topple over.

            Seven, who was usually quickest with his tongue, proved he had fast reflexes elsewhere. Quick as a lick he grabbed Inga around the shoulders and steadied her just as the boy fell into his mother’s arms. As Inga applied several kisses to the boy’s head, a dam finally broke in my own eyes as a torrent of tears ran down my cheeks.

            Seven wiped at his eyes as well as I glanced at him. I knew what he was going to say before he said, “I’m not ashamed. Jesus Himself wept.”

            Despite a reputation for being brazen, Seven was a somewhat sensitive man. Although I loved this about him, and although he meant it when he declared Jesus wept, it still made him uncomfortable to shed tears even in front me, his beloved wife.

            I looked at Jackson. His head was bowed, but his eyes were raised as he took in the reunion of mother and son. One arm was crossed over his chest, and a hand was placed over his mouth. Tears were streaming down his cheeks as well.

            Who was this guy? Inga had described him as dark and brooding when she knew him years ago. She had even believed him to be a satanist who sacrificed his own baby to the devil. Yet that baby was now nine years old and ensconced in his birth mother’s arms, and he seemed to be relishing it as mother and son reunited.

            “I can’t believe this!” Inga said as she and her son separated from their embrace. Her hands gently clasped the young boys cheeks. “I’m sorry, I just want to look at you forever!”

            “It’s okay,” he said quietly. “I want to look at you too.”

            I could tell he was an exceptional young man. Despite the dark mystery behind Jackson Bronx, this boy was raised well. He was polite, bright and loving. Eventually we got to the elephant in the yard.

            “So, Jackson,” Inga said evenly. “I don’t know whether to knee you in the family jewels or hug you.”

            “How about the later?” he replied with a tentative smile.

            To my surprise Inga and Jackson hugged. Yet it didn’t hold anywhere near the warmth of her long embrace with Benjamin. It lasted two seconds tops. As they separated, Inga said, “Well, I guess you and I have some catching up to do.”

            “Yeah, I guess so,” he replied, looking at Inga with a similar amazement that mother and son had just exhibited toward each other.

            But a tense silence ensued as the parents of Benjamin stared at each other. Then Inga defiantly crossed her arms. “I guess we could start by you explaining why you had me knocked out, stole my baby and had me dumped into the woods.”

            “I didn’t Inga, I swear!” Jackson replied, holding both hands up.

            “Well, I’m pretty sure I didn’t dream the most horrifying moment of my life. That being you taking our baby out of my arms, AND SAYING, he was to be a sacrifice to the master.”

            “It was a ruse.”

            “A ruse? Well, that was some kind of ruse, seeing how I woke up laying in dirt with ants crawling all over me.”

            “I’m so, so sorry, Inga! My plan back fired.”

            “I’d say!” Inga retorted. She was working up a lather, and I felt Seven’s hand go into mine. My husband was signaling us to silently pray.

            Inga bowed her head and pinched her nose. With forced calm she said, “Okay, what happened, happened. Why don’t you tell me about this so called ruse? Maybe you could also tell me who exactly the woman known as Jezzy is.”

            “Jezzy was my dad’s girlfriend. She and my dad were hard core satanists.”

            “So I assume you renounced satanism, seeing how you avoided the first plague?”

            “I grew up with the occult, Inga, I did. But I guess you could say my heart was never really into it. This may make you laugh, or as you mentioned before, knee me in the privates. But you and Benny transformed me.”

            Inga studied Jackson thoughtfully. There was a lump on her cheek, and she was literally biting her tongue as she absorbed his words.

            “Full disclosure,” he said boldly. “Do you remember when I came to stay at Uncle Bryson’s with my brother Barret?”

            “Of course I do.”

            “Well, one of us was supposed to, how do I put this? Steal you away.”

            “You mean kidnap!”

            “Not exactly. We were supposed to win your affections and convince you to come away with us.”

            “We?”

            “Which ever one of us you took to.”

            “That’s weird, because full disclosure, I liked your brother better, even though I thought you were cuter.”

            “I know, that’s why I got to you first.”

            “And why’s that, did the winner get a big reward?”

            “Not at all, it’s because I liked you and Barret didn’t. He thought you were a scrawny, nerdy, brat. But he was still interested just because he wanted the accolades. Then I screwed up by letting you seduce me.”

            “Me seduce you!” Inga barked with hands on hips.

            “Yeah, just by being your sweet and spicey self,” he said with a coy grin.

            Inga heatedly crossed her arms across her chest again. “What do mean by screwed up?”

            “You were supposed to be a virgin sacrifice.”

            “Why me?”

            “Your eyes. Both my dad and my uncle thought they were magical. My dad wanted to offer you as a sacrifice, but Uncle Bryson wanted to marry you. Even from the start I was trying to figure out a way to get you away from both of them.”

            “So, is your Uncle Bryson a Satanist?” she asked.

            “I’d say so, but he privately thought of himself as a Luciferian.”

            “What’s the difference?”

            “Well, not much. Satan was known as Lucifer before he was banished from heaven. The name means Light Bearer and Morning Star. That’s why my uncle was obsessed with ufology. The main difference between him and my dad is their approach. My dad is more blatant, more into the carnal, hedonistic side. Uncle Bryson is more into power and influence.”

            “I don’t understand you though,” she said. “You were so dark and creepy, even scary. But then when I got to know you, I thought you were really sweet, albeit mysterious.”

            “I guess the simplest analogy would be this,” he explained. “Think of a kid who went to a Christian parochial school but secretly rebelled against the family religion when not at home. He wore the uniform and played the part, even though he was secretly partying or looking at porn.”

            “So you dressed like a demonologist but wasn’t into, for lack of a better word, the theology.”

            “Yeah, that would be a good way to put it, I guess” he shrugged. “Look, I’ve discovered most Christians don’t even understand their own belief system and history, so how can somebody conjuring devils really understand theirs? Most Christians can’t even explain what the protestant reformation was all about.”

            “Wow, so if you were faking being an occultist back then, you deserved an Oscar.”

            “I’m not gonna lie. As a youth I thought the imagery was pretty cool. That’s probably one of the reasons Halloween is so popular. But I thought my dad’s rituals and beliefs and so forth were ridiculous.”

            “You say your dad and not your parents. Where was your mom?”

            “He divorced my mom when I was very young. I don’t even remember meeting her until I was a teenager. Long story short, he got her addicted to drugs and then in the divorce had her condemned as an unfit mother. Aunt Holly here is my mother’s aunt. In other words my grandmother’s sister. It was she who helped me escape here to Minnesota with Benny.”

            “Help you escape with Benny,” Inga repeated quietly, yet with a hint of anger.

            Jackson perceived the underlying hostility beneath Inga’s words and explained. “The guy that knocked you out and put you in the woods, Brandon, was a buddy of mine. It was me that got him in with my dad as a bodyguard. Anyway, Jezzy wanted you dead. She thought he killed you and disposed of your body. But like I said, Brandon was a buddy, and he owed me.

            “He knocked you out with a little chloroform and then gave you a mild tranquilizer. The plan was for me to sneak out a back door at a certain point in their ritual, ceremony, whatever you want to call it. I had a car waiting for me, another friend of mine driving. He had Benny and was waiting on the other side of the woods.

            “God as my witness, I intended to carry you the quarter mile through the woods and have you escape with me. The plan was for us to start a new life right here in northern Minnesota. Far away from where my dad’s cult or my uncle’s cult could find us. I couldn’t reveal the plan to you because you were watched like a hawk. There were cameras and listening devises everywhere.”

            Inga was hugging herself. I could tell by her countenance that she was overwhelmed. But the grace of God combined with years of being homeless had made her mentally tough. She stoically told Jackson, “Your uncle almost found me.”

            He looked astonished. “When? Where?”

            “Many months ago in Cedar Rapids. I was unwise and told a friend in the homeless community my story. I figured after all those years and distance it didn’t matter. But she betrayed me and told Bryson where I was for a payoff. He sent a couple goons. But an old friend from the cult and a federal agent who was undercover in the cult got us word in return. Thankfully I had met the Sallie’s here, and Seven’s cousin along with a retired police officer friend helped us capture them. If it wasn’t for meeting the Sallie’s, I’m sure they would have got me.”

            I couldn’t keep silent. I turned my gaze onto Jackson and said, “The main reason they were captured, is Inga bravely set herself up as a decoy.”

            “Believe it or not,” Inga added humbly.

            “Oh, I believe it,” Jackson said, gazing fondly at Inga. “That’s one of the reasons I fell in love with her. Like I said, sweet and spicey.”

            Inga’s return gaze was neutral. “So did you try to find me when you discovered that I wasn’t in the woods where you thought I should be? I hitch hiked for about an hour you know.”

            “We did. But to be honest we didn’t have much time. We only had a small window before they discovered Benny and I were gone. I did hire private detectives to try to find you, but they came up with pretty much nothing.”

            Inga shrugged. “I disappeared into the homeless community. For a long time I never stayed in one place very long.”

            “At first I thought Brandon double crossed me,” Jackson said. “But then the private eyes I hired said the police described you as coming to them for help. I got the impression they thought you were an out of your mind addict.”

            “Did they seem to care when my story was corroborated?” Inga asked with a frown.

            “One of the gum shoes said a sergeant seemed troubled and concerned. But whether they followed up by questioning those at my father’s mansion, I don’t know. I was on the run and in their minds, betrayed them. So I had no way of knowing.”

            Inga looked at Benjamin, who was studying her carefully. Inga took his hand. “I’ve missed you. Or maybe I should say I’ve missed knowing you. But I thought…You were… Can I have another hug?”

            Benjamin nodded, smiled shyly, and fulfilled her wish. After another round of hugs and tears, Inga faced Jackson. “Well, it looks like you’ve done a fine job raising Benjamin.”

            “I did what I could, but I need to defer that compliment to my Aunt Holly,” he declared waving a hand toward the older woman. “I couldn’t have done it without her.”

            “Thank you, Ms. Holly,” Inga said. Then she hugged herself and bit her lip.

            “It’s been my pleasure,” Holly replied meekly.

            “I did everything I could to find you, Inga, please believe me,” Jackson said.

            She smiled tentatively. “Actually I do tend to believe you.”

            “I would like to know how you found me,” he said with a cautious smile. “I mean, I’ve changed my name, we live off the grid. How on earth did you ever find me out here?”

            Inga gave a matter of fact shrug and said, “An angel told me.”

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 18

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 18

INGA LIKAS (AKA INGA COGNITO)

IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THE LAST DAYS, SAYS GOD, THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT UPON ALL FLESH; YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHECY, YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS (Acts 2:17)

            I couldn’t believe I didn’t see this one coming. Sevenia Sallie, Seven’s daughter, asked  “Do you know why my Dad’s twin brother Six is afraid of him?”

            “He is?” I frowned, recalling the two sibling’s warm embrace after Six’s arrival put the head count at the Storm’s farmhouse up to seventy.

            She tucked a strand from her shoulder length auburn hair behind her ear. Her almond -shaped green eyes looked earnest as she said, “Yeah, it’s because Seven ate nine.”

            I still didn’t get that she was joking for a few seconds. My frowned deepened. Was she talking about cousins? Because I knew that Sebastion ‘Seven’ Sallie was the youngest of seven children, and that Six and Seven were their actual middle names.

            Sevenia started giggling. I secretly fancied myself as a sharp cookie. How could I have been so dull? I once heard Seven express something a bit similar. ‘The funny thing about humility is the second you think you have, you lost it.’ I had told him this must be a regular occurrence for you.

            I think the funniest jokes are the ones that baffle me at first. So I burst out laughing after I said. “Oh, ate, not eight.”

            As I wiped a happy tear from my eye and relished the good endorphins just released in my brain, Sevenia was smiling sweetly at me. There was nothing malicious in her joke. Sevenia was right up there with the kindest, most Godly people I had ever met. There was not a mean bone in her body.

            “Thanks for that,” I said. “Nothing like a good laugh.”

            “Thank you,” Sevenia replied as she patted me on the knee. “For all you have taught me.”

            I tilted my head inquisitively. All that I taught her? She and I were roughly the same age. But I looked to her as a mentor. Her knowledge of scripture was unequaled. And I mean with not only with someone like her father, but she was right up there with Pastor Kirk Samson. He was the patriarch of Cotton Creek Cove Fellowship. He was more widely known to his parishioners as Captain Kirk, due to his decade as an Army Chaplin.

            “Actually it’s the other way around,” I smiled, giving her hand that had come to rest on my knee an affectionate squeeze.

            She shook her head. “Nobody has calmed, encouraged and exhorted like you have since the first plague fell. You’re one of the main reasons the children are behaving, well, like contented children.”

            “It’s God, not me.”

            “Right, but He’s working through you. And your humble attitude is what makes it possible.”

            “You know what your dad says about humility?”

            “I do,” she giggled, then asked. “So do you think you are humble?”

            “That’s a loaded question if ever there was one,” I laughed.

            “Haven’t you noticed that Francine practically follows you around like your shadow?”

            I smiled at the thought of Franny. She was a very shy fifteen year old who opened up to me about being bullied. Adolescence had not been kind to her. She was gangly and had pretty severe acne. So I showed her pictures of me when I was fifteen. Puberty was hostile to me as well. She and I had something else in common, unique eyes. Whereas mine were very light blue to the point of almost glowing, her eyes were violet. A color rarely seen in windows to the soul.

            “I honestly don’t mind,” I told Sevenia. “Her meekness quells my potential for being obnoxious. Especially around your dad.”

            She laughed, then rolled her eyes. “He loves exchanging good natured barbs with you. I know he looks at you like a daughter.”

            Sentiment swelled in my heart. “I guess that makes you and me sisters.”

            “We already were,” she smiled, indicating our sisterhood in Christ. Our hands were still joined, and she gave mine an affectionate squeeze. I reciprocated, and then our eyes turned to the door as a knock emanated from the old oak wood.

            Like I said, we were now seventy strong at the Storm residence. Their renovated farmhouse was very large, sporting eight bedrooms. It also had makeshift sleeping quarters in the basement, attic and living room. All these people seeking refuge here made it seem rather small, yet somehow cozy.

            I shared a room with Sevenia, Nancy Aldo, and the aforementioned Francine, who we called Franny. Sevenia’s husband Jerry was rooming with his brother Drew, who was married to Nancy. They also had to put up with Sevenia’s dad, Seven Sallie. Of course I jest by saying ‘put up with’… Well, maybe. Seven’s twin brother Six made it a foursome like our own room.

            So we assumed the knock at the door was one of our roommates. If the door was shut, we knocked in case one of the married roommates was having some private time with their husband, if you know what I mean. But low and behold, we were surprised to see the knock had come from Pastor Samson, AKA Captain Kirk.

            “Pastor, come in,” Sevenia invited.

            “Thank you, my Dear,” Captain Kirk replied as he shuffled in. The man of God was now in his nineties, and although typically spry for his age, he did have moments of appearing frail. He admitted such by joking about the oldest person recorded in the Bible. “Today I feel like Methuselah.”

            We laughed and then Sevenia asked, “To what do we owe the pleasure, Pastor?”

            With Pastor Samson’s long white beard and his reputation for impeccable character, he always reminded me of the Prophet Moses. He ambled toward a desk chair, pointed at it, and with raised eyebrows asked, “May I?”

            “Of course, of course,” Sevenia enthused.

            Captain Kirk groaned a little as he sat. The wood floor squeaked as he did so and with a chuckled he asked, “Was that my bones creaking?”

            Sevenia and I laughed again, then he asked, “How are you ladies holding up?”

            Sevenia and I glanced at each other, then looked at the Pastor and replied at the same time with the same response. “Good.”

            “Good.”

            “How about you?” I asked.

            “Fair to middling,” he replied.

            With the first of the seven last plagues falling, world chaos had ensued. So both Sevenia and I assumed the Pastor was just making rounds to check on the welfare of his flock. But he surprised us.

            “I had a vivid dream about you two as I was taking an afternoon nap today.”

            “Do tell,” I blurted. Then I wondered if it came across as flippant. I opened my mouth to utter an apology, but the Pastor spoke first.

            “I absolutely love your childlike faith, my Dear,” he told me with a chuckle. Then he became serious. “But I do not mean you are childish. Jesus admonished us to become like little children with their simple faith and humility.” (Matthew 18:1-5)

            He looked away and scratched his head. “Sure has been a long time since I was a little child though. Anyway, I had a dream about you two, but I’m not sure how to explain it.”

            “A dream or a nightmare?” I blurted again. You would think I was the daughter of Seven Sallie. But Sevenia did call us sisters.

            Captain Kirk chuckled. “Well, a dream if you follow God’s lead, or a nightmare if you don’t. But I have a good feeling about you two. Plus, it happened this afternoon, so it wouldn’t have been a nightmare in the truest sense.”

            “So what happened Pastor?” Sevenia asked.

            “Well, it was more like an instructive situation rather than anything specific happening.”

            “What do you mean?” Sevenia asked.

            “Can you two keep a secret?”

            “Wasn’t it Ben Frankin who said three people can keep a secret if two are dead,” my mouth spurted yet again. I instantly regretted it, especially given the Pastor’s age and frailty.

            But he chuckled. “It’s not that crucial of a secret. Several people already know about it. It’s just the fewer that know the better. I don’t want people thinking I’m off my rocker.”

            I stopped myself from a foot in my mouth statement, if I hadn’t already placed it there and simply asked, “Know what?”

            “I think I know,” Sevenia said. “Did you have an angelic encounter?”

            “Yes, my Dear, I did.”

            “And you’ve experienced that before?” I asked.

            “It’s complicated,” Captain Kirk replied with a frown as he began stroking his long white beard. “On a few occasions over the last twenty years, I’ve been given a message or instructions from an angel of the Lord. Whether these are actual encounters, dreams, or visions, I don’t know. What happened in my dream this afternoon was very, very real. But also very short. But the message was clear.”

            Despite his age, Pastor Samson gazed at us with the intensity of an NFL linebacker eyeing a quarterback. At the same time, Sevenia and I both said, “What is it?”

            “I don’t know.”

            Sevenia and I gazed at him dumbfounded. Then she said, “But you said the message was clear.”

            He shook his head. “No, no, we got off the same page. Let me clarify. I don’t know what your message is. My message was clear. It was to tell you two that you will be receiving a message yourselves. The purpose of me as a go between was twofold. It was so you weren’t surprised by the encounter and so you have faith in its legitimacy.”

            I felt a spike of positive adrenaline. “Are you saying Sevenia and I are going to have an angelic encounter?”

            “Either that or you will be given a vision. You both have been considered highly favored.”

            “When?” my spiritual sister and I asked at the same time.

            “Go to the two hundred year old oak tree behind the big barn at sunset. Keep this to yourselves. And may God richly bless you.”

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 17

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 17

LOUIS LEWIS

NO EVIL SHALL BEFALL YOU, NOR ANY PLAGUE COME NEAR YOUR DWELLING. FOR HE SHALL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE OVER YOU, TO KEEP YOU IN ALL YOUR WAYS. (Psalm 91:10, 11)

            Destiny and Brock Storm’s remote acreage proved to be a refuge for many who were seeking shelter from the chaos of the plagues. They were showing up miraculously, claiming that they were brought by somebody in the know, that they did not know. More than once I witnessed them look around in bewilderment, exclaiming, ‘Where did they go?’

            The very first such person was Tim Grant. He was a distinguished looking man in his seventies. He had aged well and was in great shape for someone in the category of geriatric. I had taken a liking to him, notwithstanding thinking he might have a screw loose at first, due to his supernatural encounter. This only proved I still struggled with skepticism, despite miraculously escaping the first plague myself. But my faith was strengthening by the hour.

            Tim had a gentle manner with an easy smile, despite the bedlam happening in the world. He had been in search of Anna Clayton. When the first plague causing loathsome sores began to infect the majority of the population, he had become concerned about his onetime friend. I hadn’t known initially that they had been more than just friends. It turned out, he hadn’t known he had a daughter by her.

            And that’s why Anna’s husband had been irate when Tim had shown up on their doorstep an hour before standing on the Storm’s doorstep. That’s why after the affair he had moved away and had kept his distance for more than eight years. That’s why after the adulterous liaison he had sought repentance with tears.

            But after the plague fell, he needed to be sure Anna was okay. When Brad, his former neighbor opened the door, he hadn’t expected him to be glad to see him. What he hadn’t expected was to see the grotesque, puss oozing sores on Brad’s face. He had liked and respected Brad when they had lived next to each other. He had always thought of him as a Godly man, so he was sure that he would have been safe from the plagues. He wasn’t so sure about Anna.

            Despite Brad’s current attitude, he had graciously forgiven them both not quite a decade earlier after a guilty conscience had forced a confession from Anna. But then she had begun calling Tim again only a few months after their fling. Tim had patiently, kindly ordered her to stop trying to contact him. Yet a half dozen more times she had sent him texts pleading that she needed to see him.

            As painful as it was, he had ignored them. He didn’t know that she simply wanted to tell him the not so simple news that he was going to be a father. He didn’t know that Brad had actually insisted that Tim had a right to know. He didn’t know that Anna felt like it was news to be delivered in person. He didn’t know that Brad planned to accompany her in the possible meeting.

            As our numbers increased, the Storm’s large farm house began to feel like a bed and breakfast. Then it was like a college dormitory as we were doubled and tripled in our rooms. The children were sacking out on the living room floor. Despite uncertainty in the world, God blessed the kids for their simple faith and allowed them to treat our current living like a slumber party.

            I was sitting on my bed reading my Bible when Tim walked in. He and I had been paired up in my room. He had a look of awe and wonderment on his face. He and I had become fast friends, so he used a shortened version of my name as he addressed me. Sitting on his own bed he said, “I can hardly believe it, Lou. I have a daughter.”

            I didn’t know what he was talking about, and I said as much. “What do you mean?”

            “Anna, she just informed me that that little angel Brianna is the fruit of my loins.”

            I frowned. Maybe it was our age difference, for Tim had a good quarter century on me, but I found his term describing his parentage to Brianna odd. Yet I knew exactly what he meant, and I was stunned. Oh I knew Anna had confessed to infidelity, and that Brianna wasn’t her husband’s biological daughter. What caught me unexpectedly was it turning out to be this humble, pious man who was old enough to be Anna’s father as well as Brianna’s.

            “This is good news then?” I asked.

            He looked at me with a bewildered expression. “I don’t know. That one amazing night with Anna left me with years of guilt.”

            He began to whimper, then cry, then sob to the point his whole body shook. “How can such beauty come from ashes?”

            I suddenly knew why God had paired him and me together. I shared a common bond with him, a secret not even a half dozen people knew. A secret that left such a huge scar of shame on my soul I fought to keep the words inside that felt compelled to come out.

            Why, oh why did I feel this urge to confess to my brand new brother in Christ? This man I barely knew who was my complete opposite. He was soft spoken and gentle, compared to my history of gruff and abrupt. He was well to do, and I had mostly lived paycheck to paycheck. He drove a new Volvo, and I drove a car I bought at a police auction. Yet I felt a kinship with the man I couldn’t explain. Maybe we would even end up with our arms around each other singing ‘Ebony and Ivory.’

            “I know how you feel,” I heard myself say. “I too have a daughter out of wedlock.”

            His gaze was intense as we locked eyes. We didn’t know each well enough then for him to be surprised. But his countenance expressed, ‘You mean I’m not alone? Someone knows what it means to claim to follow God and fail big time?’

            As reluctant as I had been, it felt good to get this off my chest with someone. Someone who would not only understand but benefit as if we had our own little support group. But then he asked a question that caused my thinking to do a one-eighty. “Are you two close?”

            I looked away from his penetrating blue eyes. “No, she’s mostly wanted nothing to do with me.”

            “I see,” he said blankly.

            “But our situations are different, even though they’re similar,” I said, and then frowned at the contradictory statement. “It was a complicated time in my life. But when hasn’t there been a complicated time in my life.”

            “In the world we will have tribulation,” Tim said reassuringly.

            “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world,” I finished. (John 16:33)

            We aimed forced smiles at each other. Then we sat in awkward silence for minute. Then he told me about him and Anna. How he fell in love with her after the initial harsh grief of his wife’s passing. He told of the afternoon they had innocently talked for an hour or two over a bottle of wine and things spontaneously turned romantic.

            I gently rebuked him. “Tim, there’s nothing innocent in sharing a bottle of wine with a married woman, especially when mutual attraction is present.”

            “Fair enough,” he nodded. “But in my defense, I thought the attraction was one sided.”

            “Did you? When you broke open the bottle of wine, what was your motive?”

            He considered me for a moment, sighed. “I wanted to loosen us up to see if the chemistry I felt was one sided or not. But I truly thought we would have only a glass maybe two, not the whole bottle.”

            “The human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” I said.

            “Who can know it,” he finished. (Jeremiah 17:9) Then he added with a forced chuckle, “Well, thanks for putting me in my place, Brother.”

            I chuckled myself and said, “How about I share my own wicked and deceitful heart?”

            “Please do,” he grinned.

            I sighed. “You infiltrated Anna’s marriage; I betrayed my own vows. You seduced with wine, I with power and rank.”

            “You mean like David with Bathsheba?” he interjected.

            “Well, David was a king, while I was merely a police sergeant at the time. But now that you mention it, there was one similarity. The department gave us officers memberships to a gym. The first time I saw Ronda, she was in a hot tub wearing next to mothing. I asked a buddy who she was, and he said she her name was Ronda Jameson, and she had recently been hired on after working as a part time deputy for the Sherriff’s Department.

            “As you know, David summoned Bathsheba to his palace. Obviously I didn’t do that. But a couple days after seeing Ronda, I was put in charge of a vice sting operation. I was asked to ask two female officers if they were interested in working undercover as prostitutes. Ronda was the first one I summoned. She was beyond excited at the opportunity and very grateful.

            “What I’ve told you so far makes it sound like I had nefarious intentions. But that wasn’t the case. I never, ever intended on an affair with Ronda. I never ever thought I would cheat on my wife. But back then I did live by the worldly philosophy, I’m married not buried. It’s okay to look but not touch. However, do you know what Jesus taught regarding this idea?”

            “I certainly do,” Tim replied. “If you look upon a woman with lust you have already committed adultery in your heart.” (Matthew 5:28)

            “Exactly! When I not only saw but studied Ronda in that hot tub, I began the process of adultery. My buddy even pointed out the fact that I was staring. But you know how guys can be. Without the shame I should have felt, I simply told him that I was honing my investigative skills.”

            Tim chuckled politely and asked, “So what was the straw that broke the camel’s back?”

            “It came about very complicated, yet simple if that makes sense.”

            “It doesn’t,” he laughed.

            “Ronda had an abrasive personality. She didn’t have many friends, and she didn’t care to make friends. But she took a liking to me. I think it was because I chose her for that special assignment when she was very much still a rookie.

            “Even though I found her attractive, I never, ever thought I would act on it. But figuring it was one sided, I didn’t think I had anything to worry about. Sure, I was one of the few people she allowed into her small circle of friends, but romance? She knew I was married, and although I was in good shape back then, I never won any beauty contests. And she was a knock out.

            “Plus there was another factor. Being one of the few people in her small circle of friends, I was also one of the few people that knew she was in a relationship with a woman. So add it all up and what do you get? A recipe that makes nothing, right?”

            “It would seem so,” Tim replied. Then he arched an eyebrow. “So what happened?”

            “Like you and Anna, we were having adult beverages together after work.”

            Tim shook his head. “Think of all the problems alcohol causes.”

            “Well Tim,” I said with a little smirk. “I can’t speak for you, but nobody was forcing it down my gullet. My brain kept instructing my hand to put the glass to my lips.”

            “Fair point.”

            “So we were at a favorite cop hang out,” I continued. “I normally never had more than one drink. But Ronda was picking my brain about my first years on the force. So I’m telling war stories and we’re downing beers. She’s leaning on her fist, listening intently, and smiling like I’m the most fascinating man on the planet.

            “We both lived twenty plus miles from the police station. It had also started snowing and there was a blizzard warning. In between the bar we were at and the police station, there was a Holiday Inn Express. All was within reasonable walking distance. Due to the weather and likely having to work overtime with the winter storm, I already had a room booked.”

            “Let me guess,” Tim interjected. “A winter storm led to a perfect storm for infidelity?”

            “You got it,” I replied and then sighed. “Between both of us having too much to drink and drive coupled with the storm, I invited her to my room. I suppose trying to come off as a gentleman, I told her there were two beds. But, yada, yada, yada, we ended up only using one.

            “But unlike you and Anna, ours wasn’t a one off after coming to our senses. We saw each other a half dozen more times over the next couple months. Then at one of our rendezvous’, instead of having sex, she very cooly informed me that she was pregnant and the affair was over. She threatened to make the affair public if I wanted to be part of the child’s life.

            “It was truly a nightmare and the most complicated predicament I had ever been in. Seemingly overnight she and I went from being lovers to enemies. I was worried for my job, worried for my marriage, and worried for my reputation. My wife was unable to have children so it also hurt to have a child I couldn’t acknowledge.

            “Ronda kept her word. I kept my distance, and she never divulged that I was the father. She stuck around until she had the baby, then when her maternity leave was over, she quit the force and worked for an insurance company or some such.

            “She was a complicated woman that I never did figure out. To this day I don’t know how genuine her feelings were for me. If she was acting during our fling, she deserves an Oscar. She just flipped a switch overnight and I became a leech in her eyes. I suspect she just used me as a sperm donor and once she was pregnant, my usefulness had expired.

            “Long story short, I confessed my infidelity to my wife. To my utter surprise she tearfully forgave me. But the tears were not due only to my betrayal. To my utter shock, she confessed of infidelity herself.”

            “Why did that shock you?”

            “My wife was and is very religious.”

            “I’ve come to realize that doesn’t mean much,” Tim said with a sigh. “I’ve always been quite religious myself.”

            I nodded solemnly and continued. “By the time our daughter was a preteen, Ronda and her partner had broken up. Our daughter was having behavior problems, and she finally wanted me to be part of her life. But talk about fire and ice. ‘Lou, meet your daughter. Now discipline her.’

            “So, my relationship with my daughter has been volatile and on again off again. And as I sit here with you today, I am sick inside wondering if Aliyah is covered in loathsome soars or not. She has had moments of being open spiritually. But even more moments of ‘don’t preach to me, Lou’. She never got around to calling me Dad.”

            “How old would she be now?” Tim asked.

            “She just turned nineteen.”

            Tim and I continued to chat when the greatest miracle of my life happened. There was a knock at our door. It was Inga. “Hey Double Lou, there’s a young lady here to see you. It’s yet another case of apparently being led here by an angel.”

            And there she was! Aliyah! And she had no soars!

            I was so relieved, so thankful that she was here and okay that I couldn’t stop the tears. Then I wept for joy after she ran to me with open arms and said, “Daddy!”

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 16

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 16

ZELLA LaSTELLA-SALLIE

IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS (1 John 1:9)

            The first of the seven last plagues was beginning to fall. I had butterflies in my stomach as my husband, my cousin, and Destiny’s husband were making their way back to the relatively safe haven of the Storm’s remote acreage. There had been a dozen of us in the Storm’s living room watching my husband, Seven Sallie, debate religious freedom with Congressman Redburn. It was during their dialogue that we began to notice sores rapidly develop on most of the faces in the courtroom.

            As our minds spun, and we offered up prayers, there had been a knock at the door. It was Anna Clayton and her eight year old daughter, Brianna. We invited them in, and our body count went from twelve to fourteen. Right behind Anna was her friend Debbie Smallmon and her eight year old daughter, Saddie. Fourteen now became sixteen.

            They too had escaped the first plague and exhibited no sores. However, one of Debbie’s eyes was swollen shut. Both women wore denim skirts, and there was a huge tear in Debbie’s black pantyhose, a large enough tear to reveal coagulated blood.

            I had only met Debbie and her daughter once. Anna had brought them to church at the beginning of the loud cry. But as with Anna’s husband, Debbie’s husband was adamant about Sunday reverence and the conjoining laws. So she was one and done with our fellowship. Until now.

            It was clear that Anna and Debbie were very close friends. I had known that Anna had led Debbie to Christ four years ago. Then over the last year, both had accepted the Sabbath truth together. Although best of friends, the two couldn’t have appeared to be more opposite. Yet they shared a common bond with the aftermath of sexual sin. We would come to find out that both of their husbands held this over them after they differed on Sunday verses Sabbath.

            Anna was forty-nine, tall and gangly, her light brown hair usually in a ponytail. Her gray eyes looked out of wire rim glasses, giving her a bookworm appearance. Debbie on the other hand was thirty years old. She was blond, blue eyed and had a slightly stocky, athletic build. I guessed she had been either a cheerleader or gymnast. It turned out she had been both.

            The two women and their daughters were barely in the door when I spotted my cousin’s dark blue Crown Vic come racing up the driveway. I stepped out on the porch and witnessed Seven come out of the back door before the vehicle stopped. He did an unintentional summer sault on the Storm’s lawn.

            Patience wasn’t one of my husband’s virtues. Yet he ultimately exhibited the patience of the saints in spiritual matters. (Revelation 14:12). One virtue he did have was being positive and light hearted in the midst of stress and trial. This would prove true, even during the chaos of the seven last plagues.  

            He quickly hopped up and pranced toward me with open arms. In a voice like a British monarch, he declared, “I have returned to you, my love, safe from the coming wrath.”

            He picked me up in an embrace and spun me around once, causing me to giggle. For a few seconds the world wasn’t in turmoil. Then Seven himself almost had person turmoil after he said, “Ooh, either you’ve put on a few pounds, or I’ve gotten weaker.”

            “I assure you it’s the latter,” I said shoving him away.

            “Seven, you are so blessed to have Zella for a wife,” Destiny said. “Most women would have given you the boot by now.”

            “Don’t I know it,” he said shaking his head. “Even at our wedding I had to pull my foot out of my mouth to say, ‘I do.’ And just for the record, it is the latter, I have gotten weaker, for my bride is more lovely now than the day I married her.”

            Everyone laughed, enjoying the small window of levity in the midst of world chaos. Then after a minute we sobered and entered a group prayer session. When our thanksgivings and petitions to God our Father were complete, we rose from our knees. Then Destiny and I retired to a guest room with the two women who had shown up at her doorstep. Billy Bob Booker and his wife, Willa, along with their two children, entertained the two eight year old girls.

            “Debbie,” Destiny said gently as she stepped toward the young woman with a bottle of peroxide in one hand and bandages in the other. “May I ask how you were injured?”

            With chin lifted, she stoically answered, “My husband hit me, and I stumbled over a kitchen chair. I dropped the glass I was holding in the process. It broke, and a shard cut my leg.”

            As Destiny played nurse maid on the wounded leg, Debbie shared part of her testimony. “I met Anna four years ago at a playground when our kids began playing together. I suspected by the way Anna was dressed that she was a born again Christian. She reminded me of a preachy aunt of mine. One of those people that act all high and mighty. So I recoiled at first when she struck up a conversation.”

            “She actually thought I was Brainna’s grandmother,” Anna said chuckling.

            “I did,” Debbie admitted with a giggle. “I actually asked her how old her granddaughter was. I was so embarrassed when she goes, um, she’s my daughter. But God arranged the meeting, and she blew me away with her openness to a complete stranger. I was at the lowest point of my life, longing to die, but knowing I had to hang in there for Saddie.”

            She gazed affectionately at Anna. Her eyes welled with tears. I assume from feeling emotional, but it also could have been the peroxide bubbling on the gash on her leg.

            “So I told her that, ‘no, Brianna’s my daughter,’” Anna explained. “She apologized profusely, and I reassured her by saying, ‘no big deal, it was defiantly a late in life pregnancy, and that I had twenty-five and twenty-three year old sons.’”

            “So I said, ‘wow talk about a surprise pregnancy,’” Debbie added.

            “For some reason I felt compelled to confess my transgression to Debbie,” Anna said. Destiny and I perked up as if antennas were on our heads. What is it with human nature and our tendency to be nosy? But we still didn’t know the details from when Anna let it slip that her husband wasn’t the father of Brianna.

            At the time she dismissed it by saying, ‘it’s a long story,’ and we didn’t pry. What made it so curious was Anna didn’t seem like the adulterous type at all. She was like a wholesome Amish mom morphed into a librarian. But only God knows the secrets of the heart. (Psalm 44:21)

            “I told her that my husband had a vasectomy after our second son was born,” Anna said and then laughed. “Can you imagine? A few minutes after meeting someone, I tell them my husband had a vasectomy. Then I admitted to giving into temptation and getting pregnant by a man who wasn’t my husband. So I told her I wasn’t surprised by the pregnancy. Horrified! But not surprised.”

            Debbie and Anna glanced at each other, and then Anna bowed her head as Debbie patted her leg. Destiny and I glanced at each other, and it was as if we could read each other’s mind. We both wanted to shout, ‘Who? Why? How?’

            Anna looked up and thankfully explained. “My husband and I became quite close with our neighbors, Jill and Tim. We lived next door to them for almost twenty years. My husband and Tim weren’t overly close, typical neighbors I guess. Visit by the fence, borrow tools, help move a couch, you know. But Jill and I became best friends. Their boys were about the same age as ours, and eventually she began attending our church as well.

            “She ended up getting breast cancer, fought it and won, and then got it again and lost. She was only forty-eight. I was devastated, and naturally Tim was too. Ironically, we bonded in our grief, and our mutual love for Jill. We began walking our dogs together every day. Helped each other with our gardens. Often I would fix him lunch. You see he was older than Jill, in his sixties and retired.

            “So the first year of Jill’s passing, as we bonded, I developed a crush on Tim. I tried to push it aside, but as we got to know each other I grew to love him. I had an empty nest at that point, both boys were in college. My marriage had grown cold. Brad spent more time at his country club than he did with me. Then not long after the first anniversary of Jill’s passing, Tim began dating a woman, a widow.

            “I was surprised by how jealous I felt. He started skipping out on dog walks. He rarely came over to help with the garden. He completely stopped having lunch with me in favor of dining with the widow. This all happened over four or five months. I slowly got over him, but on his birthday I made him a cherry pie. I knew from my long time friendship with Jill that this was one of his favorite treats.

            “He seemed pretty glum. I asked him if he had the birthday blues. That’s when he said he had ended things with Roxy. Her name gagged me in my throat. She looked like a Roxy. Piles of white, blonde hair, over size chest. Happily, an oversized midriff to go with it.

            “I asked why, and that’s when we entered the danger zone. He brought out cheese and a bottle of wine to go with the cherry pie as he told me that she just wasn’t in the category of Jill… Or me.

            “I wasn’t a prohibitionist, but I rarely drank. But his not so subtle admission of feelings for me had me rattled and I took a glass. Then another and another. He and I had never expressed feelings for each other beyond a chaste hug. But with the wine lubricating our minds like toxic oil we expressed fondness, longings and then desire. Our pie and cheese was hardly touched, but we drained every drop from that bottle of wine. The next thing I knew we were kissing, then we were in his bedroom… I guess I don’t need to give any more details. I’ll just conclude by saying Brianna was conceived.”

            Anna looked at Debbie with a pensive face despite a forced grin, “Next.”

            Debbie chuckled and asked, “Do I have to?”

            “Yes,” Destiny said, then smiled and put a hand on her knee. “I’m teasing, Sweety. You don’t have to say anything.”

            “No, you gals feel like friends already,” she replied, a little choked up. “I need to get some things off my chest. Like why don’t I have sores, but my husband does? Despite what happened, he’s been a better person than me.”

            “I guess we don’t know your husband,” Destiny said. “But we do know he hit you.”

            “He’s not like that though,” she pleaded. “It’s all this, this chaos making things nuts.”

            “Just tell them you testimony, Deb,” Anna suggested, patting her knee like Destiny had just done.

            “But it’s so shameful,” she whined.

            “It’s okay, Zella was a nude model, and Destiny was a porn star,” Anna explained, then frowned. “Sorry, girls.”

            Destiny chuckled. “It’s okay, it’s not a secret. As a matter of fact, I have a ministry that specializes in helping women get out of the sex industry.”

            This seemed to free Debbie of her inhibitions about sharing her past. “So toward the end of my junior year of college I got pregnant. My boyfriend was a senior about to graduate and go into the Air Force as an officer. The pregnancy was definitely not intended, but my boyfriend accused me of trying to trap him.

            “I admit that it had been my hope that he would ask me to marry him. I even would have postponed or even skipped entirely my last year of college. Instead he proved to be anything but an officer and a gentleman. He threw some cash at me to get an abortion and dumped me like yesterday’s trash. We had been together for almost all of my college career, so it wasn’t like a brief relationship.

            “As much as I hated to, I went down to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion. Believe it or not, the same aunt that Anna initially reminded me of was there with her church group picketing. So I turned tail and fled. I also felt it was a sign, and I ended up not getting an abortion, having Saddie. Thank God I did! She’s been my world despite the difficulties. I shutter when I think back to how I almost extinguished her before she had a chance to exist.

            “So with the college year at an end, I worked full time at the grocery store I had worked part time at and quickly became an assistant manager. It wasn’t long after having my baby girl that I realized being a single mother put a damper on one’s social life. I was also bitter, and not all that interested in a relationship.

            “I was angry, rebellious, yet lacking self-esteem. I was also longing for intimacy despite not wanting a relationship. A girl I worked with turned me onto a hook up site on the internet. I was hesitant at first, but I felt like it was a way to get back at my ex. What a ridiculous notion in hindsight, but I guess I needed an excuse to behave badly.

            “So, with my sister willing to baby sit while I supposedly had a girls night out, I hooked up with a guy I met on line for the first time. Forgive me, but the illicit encounter was thrilling. It became like a drug, and I began doing it on a regular basis.

            “Another excuse was it was hardly any time away from Saddie. I used a variety of baby sitters. My mom, my sister, friends. And it only took a couple hours, and I was back with my daughter, and the baby sitter was not overly burdened. Meet online, meet for a drink, go back to their place. Sometimes dinner if they were somewhat classy. Yeah right, classy guys hooking up with broken, lonely women.”

            She did a finger in her mouth to insinuate gagging.

            “But I can’t blame them, not one of them forced me to connect with them on line or go back to their place with them after we met. But I began a cycle of hook ups, self-loathing, stop for a while, get bored, start hooking up again.”

            She shook her head and continued. “So the day before I met Anna, my gynecologist informed me that I had herpes. Self-loathing hit a new low. I truly would have committed suicide if I didn’t have Saddie. The weird thing is, I know my former boyfriend was gonna end things after he graduated regardless of whether I was pregnant. So I still could have ended up in that cycle of promiscuity. But without Saddie, what would have stopped me from suicide? So in an odd way, I saved my own life by saving hers.”

            “I didn’t know what to do at this rock bottom point in my life. So I just started this mantra. ‘God, if you’re out there, please help me, I don’t know how to go on.’ I must have said that a hundred times over the next twenty-four hours. Then low and behold I meet Anna at the playground and we, I don’t know, just ended up clicking. God answered my half-conscious  prayers by putting Anna in my path.”

            She croaked out that last sentence and began to weep. Destiny and I both put a hand on her back, and Anna knelt in front of her and took both hands in hers. Debbie laughed through her tears. “Now that’s what I call the laying on of hands.”

            “So how did you meet your husband?” I asked.

            “I met Grant on a Christian dating site,” Debbie explained. “It was kind of strange after all of the internet hook ups. This time when I met a guy, the most we would do is share a chaste kiss rather than go to bed. Another strange element is it took a couple dozen dates before I met Grant. I was about to throw in the towel. Not a lot of guys want a woman with a kid, that has a history of promiscuity, a behavior that gave ultimately gave her a permanent STD.”

            There was a knock at the bedroom door. Destiny opened it and Seven came in.

            “Hey ladies,” he said, giving everyone of us a glance. “Quite a party ya got going on here. Say, there’s a guy that showed up down stairs. Brock’s been sort of interrogating him. He doesn’t have any sores and seems like a decent enough guy. But he claims to know Anna and he desperately wants to talk to her.”

            “Who is it?” Anna asked hesitantly.

            Seven frowned. “He said your husband threatened to kill him.”

            “Did you get his name?” Anna asked impatiently.

            “Not his last, just his first,” Seven replied. Then he put his hands on his hips. “What were you gals discussing?”

            “Seven!” I said incredulously. How is it some people can be so talented and brilliant, and yet occasionally come off as completely dense. “What’s his first name?”

            “Oh right. He said his name is Tim, and he’s concerned for you and your daughter’s safety.”

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 15

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 15

ZELLA LaSTELLA-SALLIE

BUT YOU, DANIEL, SHUT UP THE WORDS, AND SEAL THE BOOK UNTIL THE TIME OF THE END; MANY SHALL RUN TOO AND FRO, AND KNOWLEDGE SHALL INCREASE. (Daniel 12:4)

            There were about a dozen of us watching Seven’s program in stunned silence. It was a live podcast feed from the congressional hearing featuring my husband and Congressman Redburn. Brock Storm was operating the camera from his seat twenty feet away. Whether or not he was recording in secret I didn’t know—God knows.

            The stunned silence in the Storm’s home wasn’t because of the dialogue between Seven and the Congressman. Our eyes were riveted to the TV screen due to the chaos in the courtroom. What was causing the pandemonium was apparently the beginning of the seven last plagues.

            As Brock operated the video camera, he had been rotating back and forth between which of the two men on display were speaking. He had just zeroed in on Mr. Redburn when the Congressman’s face began to discolor. He truly seemed to be living up to his last name.

            His complexion suddenly transformed from a pale alabaster to something like a bad sunburn. Then in a matter of seconds his skin transformed again when his face seemingly broke out into a case of severe acne. That’s when we noticed murmuring and shrieks. Brock rotated the camera around the courtroom and virtually everyone in the room had the same thing happening to them.

            Then the video screen took in both Congressman Redburn and Seven. The appearance of pimples on the Congressman had now turned into boil like sores, oozing puss. Yet my husband was not affected! His light complexion was as smooth as could be. That is for a man over forty with a five o’clock shadow. He seemed to be staring at the camera with a stunned expression. But it was actually Brock he gazed at as he nodded an acknowledgement of some type of communication between the two.

            Next the camera swirled and jiggled as Brock, my husband, and my cousin, Louis Lewis, quickly exited the courtroom.  We caught glimpses of people screaming and clutching their faces. Then the camera bobbed up and down as the trio ran out into the street. The picture on the large TV screen gyrated so much it started to give me motion sickness.

            Yet I couldn’t take my eyes from the scene on the screen. Then the picture stopped vibrating and stilled. Out on the street Brock had stopped and allowed the viewers to take in the commotion outside even the courtroom. Scores of people were clawing the loathsome sores on their faces. Thankfully there were some unaffected as they looked around, amazed at the turmoil.

            For about two seconds my cousin’s face appeared on the screen as he made his way past Brock. Thankfully his ebony complexion was unaffected by the plague. But his brown eyes were super wide and intense as he said, “Come on, Brock!”

            Then Brock whirled and captured the sight of my slightly overweight cousin scrambling down the sidewalk. Between Louie’s wide eyes and the sight of a middle aged man in dress shoes high step running as fast as he could, it caused several of us to snicker, despite the gravity of the situation.

            That view only lasted a few seconds as well before we heard a grunt and the picture on the screen briefly giggled. The camera spun around and captured my husband, the venerable Seven Sallie, sitting on the sidewalk with his arms behind him propping himself up. His gray-green eyes were as wide as Louie’s. “Why’d you stop, Brock?”

            “I was taking in the scene around us, just like you apparently were, as you weren’t watching where you were going.”

            With surprising agility for a middle aged man, Seven leapt up and sprinted away as he said, “Come on, let’s get outta here.”

            The picture began to giggle again as Brock pursued his two companions. My husband, an avid runner, passed my chunky cousin. It reminded me of John chapter twenty when John out ran Peter to Christ’s tomb. But leave it to my husband, he flung open the back door of a dark blue Chevy Malibu and dove in.

            Three cars away, Louie opened the door of his dark blue Crown Vic, but he then froze as he gazed toward the car Seven dove into. “Seven, over here.”

            “I’ll get him,” Brock’s voice said as the camera caught his muscular forearm opening the door to the Chevy Malibu. “Seven, you’re in the wrong car.”

            “Shoot!” he said as he scrambled out. Suddenly my husband’s eyes filled the entire screen for a couple seconds as he said, “Is that camera on?”

            “Yeah, this is a historical moment.”

            “What, by sticking it in my face as I get out of the wrong car?”

            “I’m just trying to help you out.”

            “Well turn that camera off or we’ll have to call this ‘The Three Stooges Escape the Plagues.’”

            Next we see Louis Lewis fumbling with his keys, starting his car, and then a view out of the windshield as they shot out of a parking lot. They had to make their way cautiously down the city streets. Cars were pulled over left and right, and people were running around in a panic.

            “Can you believe what we are witnessing?” Seven said.

            “That’s why I’m filming,” Brock replied, as he turned the camera back on Seven as my husband leaned on the front seats from the back. Seven’s eyes as well as his nose filled the screen this time.

            His eyebrows too as he frowned. “Will you stop sticking that thing in my face?”

            The camera rotated to Louie. My cousin glanced at it, then did a double take. “Well, don’t be pointing it at my ugly mug.”

            As we watched the trio escaping the city via the live feed, Destiny turned her pretty face toward me. She was chewing nervously on her lip but then chuckled. “I’m kind of glad they’re reluctantly playing ‘The Three Stooges.’ It’s sort of relieving how freaked out I feel.”

            “Me too,” I said as we both gave each other’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

            A knock at the door made us jump. Destiny clutched my hand tighter, so together we cautiously made our way to her front door. She peeked through a window and sighed with relief. Glancing at me, she said, “It’s Anna Clayton and her daughter, Brianna. They have no sores, but they both look terrified.”

            Dee opened the door and with her typical warm smile, in spite the turmoil. “Anna, Brianna, please come in.”

            Anna Clayton had learned about the true Sabbath during the loud cry. The loud cry came on the heels of the national Sunday law, in conjunction with the out pouring of the Holy Spirit, which was the Latter Rain.

            I knew the Sabbath issue had become a divisive sticking point between Anna and her husband. After fellowshipping with us a couple of times, she and her eight year old daughter Brianna stopped coming. Her reason was for the sake of her marriage. Her husband was in adamant favor of the Sunday laws.

            However, a few weeks earlier, when Sunday worship became mandatory, she showed up at our fellowship with a tear steaked face. She informed us that when the rubber met the road, she couldn’t deny her convictions. She clearly saw the Seventh Day Sabbath as the seal of God, and the mandatory worship on Sunday as the mark of the beast. It now had seemed to have driven a wedge between her and her husband. Her husband refused to let their daughter come with her.

            We didn’t know much about Anna those few weeks ago when she took her ultimate stand of faith. She was a plain Jane, meek and kind of timid. Her shoulder length hair was somewhere between dirty blond and light brown. In the limited time I had been around her, it had always been corralled in either a ponytail or hair clip. She wore glasses, but no makeup, and no jewelry other than a wedding band. Her gray eyes were close set, her nose small and her lips thin. Her smile, although rare, was lovely and made endearing by slightly crooked canine teeth.

            “I didn’t know what to do other than to come back to your church,” she had told Destiny and me after we led her into the pastor’s study for some privacy. “Brad refused to let Briana come with me.”

            “First of all, lets pray,” Destiny said, and then led us in a heartfelt prayer petitioning God’s help with Anna’s family situation as she courageously took a stand for her convictions.

            “There’s something else I should share,” Anna added. “Our two sons take their dad’s side in this controversy.”

            “Oh?” Destiny replied with raised eyebrows, looking as surprised as I felt. “I assumed Brianna was an only child.”

            Anna shook her head vigorously. “Brad and I have a twenty nine year old son and a twenty seven year old son.”

            I frowned. “I see, but I thought you had told us before that you were married the summer before Brianna was born?”

            She shook her head again. “We renewed our vows the summer before Brianna was born. We actually got married two weeks after we graduated from high school. Bradely Junior was born late the following spring.”

            “Oh, so you two have been married thirty years then?” I asked.

            She nodded. Then she bit her lower lip nervously. “I feel I should share something else with you as well. It’s actually making my situation with Brad much more complicated than just our differing views on the Sabbath.”

            She paused and looked at her lap. She wore a blue and white house dress, and she twisted her fingers nervously in the folds between her legs. The church she had belonged to was very conservative and the women always wore skirts or dresses.

            She looked up at us and a tear leaked from her eye. “I feel like I’m betraying Brad with what I’m about to share.”

            She paused for a very long time, but Destiny and I sat quietly and gave her space. Anna surprised us by suddenly snorting a laugh. “Well, you two sure aren’t the nosy, gossipy type. So at least I can trust you to keep it to yourself.”

            She paused and looked at her lap again. Especially given the little compliment she had given Destiny and me, I had to stop myself from saying, ‘Keep what to ourselves?’

            “Brad isn’t Briana’s father,” she finally and quietly admitted.

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 13

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 13

LOIUS LEWIS

FEAR GOD AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM, FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGEMENT HAS COME; AND WORSHIP HIM WHO MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, THE SEA AND SPRINGS OF WATER (Revelation 14:7)

            “Lou, right now they’re single file,” Brock’s low voice said directly into my ear via an ear bud. “I still don’t know what kind of weapons they have. One of them is wearing black cargo pants and a black shirt. The other is wearing blue jeans and a green shirt. You take the guy in black; I’ll get the other. I’m moving in on them so I’m gonna be silent now.”

            Inga and I were in a make shift tent, a good half mile from the closest road. I could tell she was scared, but she had a determined look on her face. A crack from one of the tarps that worked as a shelter put a band of late afternoon sunlight across the top half of her face. It made me think of it as a mask of righteousness across the courageous young lady’s face. I was prepared to take a bullet for her if necessary.

            A few days ago, when I was still a police lieutenant, there was no way I would be part of a mission using a twenty something year old woman as bait to catch bad guys. No private citizen for that matter. Now I was a private citizen myself, and I guess playing a private detective. I ended up going along with a plan to entice some of those possibly involved with the murder of Inga’s sister into a trap.

            I also did another ‘no, no.’ I pulled a twenty-two pistol from a coat pocket and whispered, “Glow Eyes, have you ever shot a gun?”

            Her arctic blue eyes looked startled. But she still wore a stoic expression as she shook her head. I gave her an extra quick lesson, then sat the pistol not far from her. “Don’t touch this unless the bad guys somehow get the edge. But be of good courage, WE have the edge. They’re walking into a trap WE set. There’s three of us and two of them. And one of our three is Brock Storm.”

            She took hold of my hand that wasn’t pulling a Glock 17 from my other inside pocket. I looked at our joined hands and then at her. “We also have a decorated police veteran.”

            I forced a smile and refrained from saying former, but she did it for me. “Before you got fired.”

            I had discovered that Inga usually followed a compliment with a slight. Yet I’m not sure she did it on purpose. She was one of those people like Seven Sallie that had a hard time stopping their mouth from speaking what came to their mind.

            I could almost feel the approach of the bad guys, even though it was quiet. That is except for the noise of the woods. That being the chirping of birds and the chatter of squirrels. Then a twig snapped. Suddenly there was a rush of footsteps, and I aimed the Glock at the makeshift entrance. There was a brief scuffling sound, then Brock’s voice. “Lou, it’s me. You two can come out.”

            Inga and I exited the tent, and I scratched my head. The guy with the blue jeans and green shirt laid unconscious. The guy in all black had a bloody nose as Brock put handcuffs on him. As he did so, the suspect talked about wanting a lawyer.

            He continued. “I know my rights, all we have is knives and they are perfectly legal. That old pervert appeared to have kidnapped the young lady, and we thought he was gonna rape her.”

            Destiny and Zella came down the dear trail, with Destiny carrying a black tool bag.

            “You seem to be mistaken,” Brock said. “I’m not the police. I don’t care one bit about your rights. Just as you care nothing about the lives of Inga and Paloma Likas, and Priscilla Rosenwinkle. I only care about justice.”

            A propane torch in Brock’s right hand popped to life from a lighter in his left hand.

            “What are you doing?” the man in black asked nervously.

            “Executing justice for the murdered young ladies.”

            “We didn’t do it, I swear!”

            “Maybe not, but you know who did.”

            “No I don’t!”

            Brock flashed the flame across the man in black’s bare arm, and he howled at the dipping sun.

            “That was only a second, think what a minute, maybe two will be like,” Brock warned.

            To use an old fashioned gangster movie term, the man in black sang like a canary. No sooner had he finished, when FBI Agent Nora Medora came down the trail along with Benito Bonanno. They were accompanied with a few other Federal agents. At least I assumed they were since I was out of the loop.

            Inga sat on a nearby boulder, crossed her arms, hugging herself and watched a discussion ensue between Brock and Nora Medora. Zella went to her, and Inga sprang up like a jack in the box and hugged my cousin fiercely. Destiny joined them and rubbed Inga’s back. When Inga separated from Zella, she took Destiny’s hand and squeezed.

            I wasn’t good with emotional stuff. Maybe that’s yet another reason I ended up with marital problems. The Sunday law issue that came up between my wife and me was probably only the straw that broke the camel’s back. But I owed Inga, what? Respect? Gratitude?

            I approached the trio of women, and they all turned their gaze on me. Discomfort made my skin crawl, but I pressed on, duty bound. I made a fist, gently placed it on Inga’s upper arm and gave a little shove. “You did good, kid.”

            Those striking arctic blue eyes were watery as she looked into mine. She opened her arms and the next thing I knew I was in an embrace with the little twirp. It was like hugging a bag of bones. Although it was loose and awkward, it also felt surprisingly good and comforting. It seemed to allow everything I’d been holding back to flash before my mind. My marriage, my job, this little mission, what the future held.

             Then I heard whimpering and was horrified to realize that it was me. I braced myself for a smart-alecky remark. But she surprised me by kissing my cheek and saying, “Lou I know you’re going through a lot. Don’t feel embarrassed for having feelings. Remember, Jesus Himself wept.” (John 11:35)

            I gave a little shrug and nodded. Then she reverted back to the Inga I was more familiar with. She shoved me with both hands and said, “So who do you think you are?”

            “Who do I think I am? A man who is blessed to have friends like you during a time like this.”

            She chewed her lip, and her eyes watered some more. Her face scrunched up and she threw herself in my arms again, but this time our hug was tight. “You’re becoming like the grandfather I never had.”

            I felt myself frown. “You know, I’m actually three months younger than Zella.”

            “Oh, well, you just look a lot older, more gray, less peppy.”

            I turned our embrace into a bear hug, and she emitted a high pitched squeak. “Lou!”

            I released her and we both laughed. Then she looked at me with sympathy. “I don’t recall you ever laughing before.”

            The way I felt was either laugh or cry, right? But I didn’t tell her that.

            It felt really strange to be part of something like a police operation, yet not in the loop. It also felt strange being part of an operation where I questioned the ethics. The thing that bothered me was the threat of torture. What also troubled me was that the potential torturer had the reputation as a devout Christian.

            After the proverbial dust settled, Brock approached me. “Thanks for your help, Lou. You did great.”

            “Listen, Storm, can I ask you a question?”

            “Of course.”

            “Let me say first, you’re amazing at what you do. But…”

            “You had a problem with the torch incident,” he interrupted with a rueful smile.

            “I did. It’s not something I would have done as a police officer.”

            “You weren’t allowed to.”

            “True enough, but there’s plenty of bad cops that skirt rules and ethics.”

            “But you were a good cop.”

            “I tried to be.”

            “No, you were a good cop. Otherwise you wouldn’t have joined our side on the Sunday law issue. You care about doing what is right.”

            I shrugged, then gave him my own rueful smile. “Are you avoiding the question?”

            “You never asked one.”

            I frowned. He was right, he had interjected my discomfort with the torch. “Fair enough. How do you balance being a Bible believing Christian and torture?”

            “I didn’t torture anyone,” he said as he reached for the propane torch and lit it. He ran it across his arm just like the suspect. Only Brock winced rather than howled. “For the record, I was not gonna do any more than what I just did to myself.”

            “But you asked him how that torch would feel on his skin for a full minute or more?”

            “I never said I was gonna do it. I’m pretty sure he thought I was though. You may not agree with my tactics, Lou. But I suppose between my appearance and demeanor, I have only needed to give bad guys an implied threat. Keep in mind though, since becoming a Christian, I don’t do this chasing bad guys for a living anymore. Only when an acquaintance is in some type of trouble.”

            “Before becoming a Christian, did you follow through on threats?” I inquired.

            “You don’t want to know.”

            “Sure I do, or I wouldn’t have asked,” I replied, and then grinned. “But I think you actually answered my question by your avoidance.”

            “You are a good detective,” he replied with a smirk.

            The next few weeks for me were a blur. But not just because of my personal life. Every day the chaos in the headlines intensified with wars and rumors of wars, calamities, hunger and homelessness. Yet at the same time, false revivals across America were increasing in staggering numbers. Miracles and supernatural encounters abounded.

            A so called prophet that many believed was Jesus was adamant that the Bible Sabbath was changed to Sunday. My wife was one of the many that were buying in to it. Until then it seemed my wife and I might have been making headway in repairing our marriage.

            Then when I explained that Jesus’s second coming would be visible to all, and that there would be false Christ’s and false prophets, she didn’t like it. All of our endeavors at marital healing started to go sideways. Then the call for mandatory worship on Sunday became a reality. One would no longer be able to buy or sell unless they proved, mostly via their phones, that they had checked into a religious service. They could even do this through zoom if they were housebound.

            I vehemently refused to comply, and my marriage went from sideways to backwards. Karen filed for divorce and wanted me out of the house for good. She was very concerned that my refusal to comply with the Sunday laws would make her guilty by association.

            I never felt so alone that first day as I gathered some things and moved out. But things looked up rather quickly. My cousin Zella and I had fully repaired the breach that separated us for years. I joined her little band of believers, and they all, even her husband Seven, welcomed me with open arms.

            The Storm’s graciously invited me into their large home after my wife kicked me out of ours. They were living self-sufficiently. They had an abundant garden of which we all chipped in to help keep up with maintenance and harvest. There was also a network of fellow believer’s living the same way with all of us working together to defy the mark of the beast and its national Sunday law.

            God had a remnant people! During the loud cry, everyone was given a choice. Either embrace the commandments of God and the seventh day Sabbath of the Creator, or the commandments of men and Sunday, made popular by human tradition. Although most of humanity followed the beast and adhered to Sunday observance, many came out of spiritual Babylon and embraced the Bible Sabbath.

            The out pouring of the Holy Spirit was being experienced in abundance. Despite my many trials in the recent past, I had never experienced such peace and contentment as I did with my new life. There was a deep satisfaction that came from giving my all to God. Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10) became something I had experienced to the fullest. But it wasn’t without its challenges.

            Seven Sallie spoke before congress. Brock and I accompanied him. It was dangerous. In some parts of the world, Sabbath keepers were being put in prison and even to death. Sabbath keepers were being blamed for the calamities and strife throughout the planet. And what happened in that government building that day did not make things better.

            Despite Seven Sallie fluently and eloquently explaining Bible truth, the majority of our political leaders would have none of it. Suddenly people began to get rashes. Then the rashes turned into blistering sores. A rancid smell filled the room. Murmurs turned into shrieks. I was beyond confused. Compared to my spiritual brethren, I was still somewhat of a child in Biblical matters.

            “What is going on?” I mumbled to Brock, dazed by what I was witnessing. Yet he, Seven, and I were unaffected by the sores.

            In a solemn voice he replied, “It seems to be the first of the seven last plagues.” (Revelation 16:1, 2)

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 6

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 6

LIEUTENANT LOUIS LEWIS

HE REVEALS DEEP AND SECRET THINGS; HE KNOWS WHAT IS IN THE DARKNESS, AND LIGHT DWELLS WITH HIM (Daniel 2:22)

            “Is that shrug a yes or no?” I had asked Inga Likas, also known as Inga Cognito. The question was whether or not she had supernatural powers. Just to be clear, I did not believe that she had supernatural powers. But I was looking for was whether she thought she did.

            “Maybe,” she replied with another shrug.

            “How do you maybe have supernatural powers? Either you do or you don’t. Let me rephrase that. Either you think that you do, or you don’t. Yes or no?”

            “Yes, we all can have supernatural powers. And I mean you as well, Lieutenant.”

            “What are you talking about?”

            “I mean if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can move mountains,” she declared. (Matthew 17:20) “Do you not believe that?”

            “I’m not here to discuss my faith. I’m…”

            “Or lack thereof,” Inga interrupted.

            “Now listen here,” I began to defend. Then I paused, regained my composure, and calmly said, “We need to stay on the task at hand. And that task is for me to investigate the death of your sister.”

            “You’re the one that asked if I had supernatural powers.”

            I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Why did my detectives have to be overworked, compelling the Captain to assign me personally to this homicide case? He had a twofold reason for doing so. For one thing, he put a lesser value on the murder of a seemingly homeless person. For another thing, I could tell he was not pleased when I requested to withdraw from overseeing the ever increasing Sunday laws.

            “Ms. Likas, tell me about this former fiancée. Why do you think he was behind it and not someone, say, from the homeless community?”

            “Because of what you said was carved into her flesh,” she replied. Then she paused as she choked on a sob. “Nobody here knows I sometimes went by Inga Cognito other than members of your police department, and my friends, Zella and Seven Sallie. Do you think one of your officers may have done it?”

            “Absolutely not!”

            “Well, I say the Sallie’s absolutely did not do it either.”

            “Okay, tell me about this former fiancée.”

            “Before I do, let me make this statement. In my thinking, I wasn’t his fiancée. I was being forced into a marriage that wasn’t legitimate, since he had multiple wives and I was only sixteen years old.”

            “Can you tell me who he is and where he is?”

            “His name is Bryson Bronx, and the last I knew he lived on a compound in the California desert. He’s very wealthy, I’m sure he’s a billionaire. He’s also the leader of a wacko alien cult. There were more than two hundred of us living on the compound. My sister, Paloma, who you found… Who…”

            Inga put a fist over her mouth and began to cry. My cousin Zella put an arm around her. I gave her space to grieve.

            “So tell me, Inga,” I began gently after she calmed. “If this Bryson Bronx is a very wealthy man way out in California, how do you think he tracked you here to a homeless camp in Iowa?”

            “Oh, I don’t believe he did it himself. But I do believe it was one of his hench men, bodyguards, thugs, whatever you want to call them.”

            “What can you tell me about these hench men?”

            “He had seven of them. He was obsessed with seven.”

            “I assume you mean the number and not this gentleman sitting at the table with us?”

            A smirk played at Inga’s lips. “Did you mean Seven Sallie?”

            “I did.”

            “Okay. The gentleman part confused me.”

            “Hey, that’s hurtful even if it might be true,” Seven replied with self-deprecation.

            Inga burst out with a laugh. Then it instantly morphed into sobs. She croaked, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be joking at a time like this. The truth is, Seven’s the most wonderful man I have ever met. If it hadn’t been for him and Zella taking me in, I most likely would have been killed with my sister.”

            I took in the scene for a moment. My cousin Zella with her arm protectively around Inga on one side, and Seven giving her hand an affectionate squeeze on the other. I had judged Seven and his zeal over the Sabbath vs. Sunday issue as Pharisaical. I felt he was knit picking, and disrupting community unity by rebelling against the Sunday laws. But their taking in this homeless girl was living out Christianity at its core.

            I had seen Inga Likas, also known as Inga Cognito, two or three weeks earlier at the station. Let me tell you, she was rough, dirty, and weathered. But now after only a couple of weeks with the Sallie’s she looked clean and healthy. This despite red rimmed eyes caused by grief.

            Getting back on task, I inquired, “Please tell me what you meant by Bryson and the number seven.”

            “He felt seven was the Biblical number of perfection,” Inga replied with a shrug.

            “I can’t argue with that,” I added.

            “Really?” Seven asked with an arched eyebrow.

            I didn’t know if he was inferring about the seventh day Sabbath or himself. But I knew I had walked into it, so I walked right back out of it by moving forward. “You were to be his seventh wife. Is there anything else regarding Bryson and seven?”

            She shrugged. “He had his seven hench men, seven house keepers and butlers, seven cars, stuff like that. But here’s the thing about his seven wives. When I was to become his seventh wife, it was more like his, I don’t know, eleventh or twelfth at least.”

            “What does that mean?”

            “It means when he finds an interesting prospect for another wife, his least favorite of the seven mysteriously disappears,” she explained, using air quotes while saying ‘disappears.’

            “So you’re saying he has them killed?”

            “All I know is they disappeared. Having them killed would be my guess. Or maybe he really is in communication with aliens.”

            “So let me get this straight. He’s into Biblical things, but has people murdered? His so called wives no less?”

            “I didn’t say he was a Christian, but he is interested in aspects of the Bible. But more  like secret Bible codes rather than, say, the Gospels.”

            “I see. So did you witness any of these disappearances?”

            “From the standpoint of hearsay. You know, like, oh Brenda’s gone. Then a month or two later, there was a new wife for Bryson from among our ranks. Then around a year later, oh Jenny’s gone. Then a month or two after, there’s was a new wife for Bryson. And Jenny was the vacancy that was supposed to pave the way for me.”

            “How long did you live on this compound?”

            “I was twelve when we moved there, so about four years. My mom got intrigued by the cult, divorced my dad and married one of Bryson’s seven hench men. Most of the followers on the compound lived in dorm type quarters. But because my stepdad had rank, we lived in a pretty decent apartment.”

            “Is your mom still there?”

            “I’m not sure. When Paloma and I ran away, Bryson was not happy at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if she disappeared,” she said, again using air quotes for ‘disappeared.’

            “Have you been in contact with your mother since you left the compound?”

            “Nope.”

            “So you were sixteen when you left the compound?”

            “I was days away from turning sixteen and Pal was eighteen.”

            “What about your father?”

            “I haven’t seen him since I was twelve.”

            “He didn’t have joint custody or anything?”

            “He couldn’t. He had a couple domestic violence charges against him. Besides, he always doubted whether he was actually our father. And with good reason. One of his domestic violence charges came after he caught our mom in bed with a friend of his.”

            “Is he a possibility in the death of your sister?”

            “I don’t know, I suppose. But it’s been so long since I’d seen him, it didn’t really occur to me. It was Bryson’s men who tried to hunt us down after we left. Like I said my dad wanted nothing to do with Paloma and me. The only one of us three he liked was Brent.”

            “Who’s Brent?”

            “Our brother. He’s two years older than Paloma, and four years older than me.”

            “Do you know his whereabouts?”

            “He joined the Marines as soon as he turned eighteen. I haven’t seen him since and only talked to him twice.”

            “Were you and your brother ever close?”

            She shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, for growing up in a dysfunctional environment, we got along quite well. My dad liked me the least. Brent protected me from our dad’s wrath. You see, the friend he caught in bed with my mother had unusually light blue eyes like me.”

            Inga’s eyes were indeed striking. So arctic blue, they sometimes seemed to glow.

            “My eyes are the reason Bryson chose me to be his wife,” she continued. “Even though Paloma is prettier than me. He felt like because of my eyes I was some type of gateway to other worlds. He thought I could make, how do I put this? Contact.”

            “You mean contacting aliens.”

            “Yeah, something like that.”

            “How old is Bryson?”

            “By now he would be in his mid-fifties.”

            Paloma’s face was beaten beyond recognition. When Inga said her sister was prettier, I thought it would be good to see how much the siblings resembled each other. “Do you have any pictures of Paloma?”

            Inga pulled out her phone and pulled up some pictures of Paloma. The two women definitely looked like siblings. Inga was also being humble in declaring her sister prettier. Although Paloma had a more curvy, voluptuous body, Inga’s arctic blue eyes made her face more striking, compared to Paloma’s darker blue-gray eyes. Would the killer have noticed the difference?

            As I held Inga’s phone in my left hand, I pulled my own ringing phone out of my pocket with my right. It was my desk sergeant.

            “Hey Jeff, what’s up?”

            “Hey Lou. There’s a man here who says his name is Brent Likas. Says he’s the brother of the murdered woman from the homeless camp.”