Tag: fiction

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 18

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 18

ARLO ALDO

RESTORE TO ME THE JOY OF YOUR SALVATION, AND UPHOLD ME BY YOUR GENEROUS SPIRIT (Psalm 51:12)

            My heart began to race as I saw the astonished look on my fiancée’s face. Her gaze kept rotating from me to my four year old daughter, and to my ex-girlfriend Elsa. We all seemed to be frozen by awkwardness. Finally Penny cleared her throat and said, “You have daughter?”

            “That’s what Elsa tells me.”

            Penny, the bluntest person I have ever met, says, “How do you know she’s telling you the truth?”

            Although I believed she was, it had crossed my mind that Elsa was mistaken, or even lying. Yet the little girl’s age would fit with the timeline of when she confronted me about the pregnancy and the desired abortion.

            I shrugged. “I don’t know, I just believe her.”

            “You had told me that you weren’t confident the child was yours when she told you she was pregnant. So what makes you so sure now?”

            “I guarantee you Arlo is Ivy’s father,” Elsa said matter of fact. “But it won’t hurt my feelings any if you want to get a paternity test.”

            Penny opened her mouth, and knowing her, I feared she was going to say I don’t care about your feelings. But then she closed it and frowned. Then she put a finger on her chin and eyed me suspiciously. Yet she was handling this situation with impressive calmness. “So when did you find out about Ivy?”

            “An hour ago.”

            Penny looked at Elsa. “Why now? Why didn’t you tell Arlo after you decided to keep the baby rather than aborting her?”

            “Not that I’m a saint by any means,” Elsa said. “But I was very uncomfortable thinking about my child’s father being part of a satanic rock group.”

            “But you were comfortable going to bed with a guy from a satanic rock group for what, eight years?”

            Elsa shrugged nonchalantly. “I was like nineteen when I started going with Arlo. People change. Like I said, I was no saint, he and I met at the Playboy mansion for goodness sake.”

            “So now you want Arlo to be a part of your daughter’s life?”

            “Yes, I do, very much so.”

            Penny crossed her arms abruptly and glared at me. “So what are you gonna do, move to California, or buy an airplane?”

            “Elsa doesn’t live in California anymore. She lives in the Chicago area with her aunt.”

            “She’s the only family I have left, and she getting up in years.”

            Penny looked stricken, and I felt my toes curl. To me Elsa made it sound like she was suggesting a menage a trois of some sort. It didn’t help as she continued.

            “If you guys are okay with it, Ivy and I could get a room right here at Mrs. Mendelbright’s for a while so you all could get acquainted with Ivy, and vice versa.”

            I opened my mouth to tell Penny the reason Elsa was extra eager for me to get to know my daughter,  but her voice won the race, and it bordered on hostility. No forget border, Penny was out right hostile.

            “Oh that would be wonderful!” Penny mocked. “I was supposed to get married the day after tomorrow, and my fiancée surprises me with his ex-girlfriend for our honeymoon!”

            It didn’t go beyond my notice that Penny said ‘was supposed to get married’ rather than ‘is going to get married’ the day after tomorrow. She stomped toward the door, and I grabbed her by the crook of her arm. “Penny, wait.”

            “Let go of me!” she said through gritted teeth as she jerked her arm free from my grasp. She slammed the door, and I cringed. Mrs. Mendelbright had about a dozen rooms in her large Victorian boarding house. Could people hear the dispute?

            I was frozen for a moment and glanced Elsa. Her eyes were wide with astonishment. “Arlo, I’m sorry I impulsively came here. I should have given you time to talk this over with Penny.”

            “It will be alright,” I reassured her. “Penny is a rather fiery person. But she’s also reasonable, compassionate, and smart. I’ll be back in a minute.”

            I burst out of Mrs. Mendelbright’s just in time to see the door of Penny’s truck slam shut. I sprinted over, reached through her open window, and shut off her truck.

            “Get away from me, Arlo,” she said as she restarted her truck. “Go make another baby with your ex-girlfriend.”

            I reached in to shut off her truck again. She grabbed my wrist and bit my hand. “Ow!”

            I jerked my hand out, and as her window went up, she barked, “The wedding’s off.”

            I made my way back to my room, grabbed my phone and told Elsa I would be a few more minutes. Once outside again, I tried to call Penny, but she didn’t answer. So I texted her. Back then we had flip phones and texting took a bit longer. And in my haste, it took even longer as I had to correct several typing mistakes.

            “Penny, please come back. I need to tell you something, and after I do I’m sure you will want to go back up and talk to Elsa. Please trust me.”

            Five minutes later I was pleased to see her drive back up. I wasn’t pleased to see the angry look on her face. Her window rolled down and she said, “This better be good.”

            Between the tension with Penny, finding out I had a daughter, and the horrible news Elsa had shared, I couldn’t control my emotions. Tears began to stream from my eyes, my lower lip quivered, and my voice cracked. “Penny, Elsa’s dying.”

            Her face looked stunned, and she softly tried, “Dying to do what?”

            “She’s dying, dying. As in she’s no longer gonna live. She has been given only a few months.”

            “I don’t understand.”

            “Not long after she had Ivy, it was discovered that she had breast cancer. It went into remission for more than a year, but just last week she found out that it had come back with a vengeance and has spread throughout her body.”

            She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Oh Arlo, I’m so sorry. I’ve never behaved like a bigger jerk in my life.”

            “That’s not true,” I said. She frowned at me, and it would have been funny if it wasn’t such a somber moment.

            She got out of her truck and gave me a quick hug. Then she made her way back to the house. She moved surprisingly quick for someone eight months pregnant. As we went through the door of my room, we discovered Elsa pacing, and Ivy still entranced by the cat.

            Elsa looked a little horror stricken as she froze and stared at Penny. But Penny displayed the intense compassion that are in spicey people that are Godly. She moved to Elsa and hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions, Elsa. I behaved like a moron, but would you please forgive me?”

            Elsa laughed as she cried, and they separated. “No worries. It seems Arlo told you about my dilemma.”

            “Yes, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am. We will do whatever we can to help you through this ordeal.”

            “Even raise my little girl?” Elsa asked and then sobbed.

            Penny hugged her again. “Sweety, I will love her like my own, I promise.”

            When they separated, we all looked at Ivy, blissfully happy, and blissfully unaware that her whole world was soon to be turned upside down.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 15

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 15

ELI

FOR WHO KNOWS WHAT IS GOOD FOR MAN IN LIFE, ALL THE DAYS OF HIS VAIN LIFE WHICH HE PASSES LIKE A SHADOW? WHO CAN TELL A MAN WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER HIM UNDER THE SUN? (Ecclesiastes 6:12)

            There was a brisk knock on my door at Mrs. Mendelbright’s bed and breakfast, which had turned into a boarding house for Arlo and me. I was pleasantly surprised to see Ariel when I pulled open the door. But my pleasure was soon turned to tension.

            She pushed past me as she stormed into my room, spun on her heel, and placed hands firmly on hips. With clenched teeth, she growled, “I’m so mad at you!”

            “What’d I do?” I asked innocently. I truly was surprised. Our relationship had turned intimate a couple months ago, and we both seemed to be on cloud nine. So what had upset the apple cart?

            She changed gears as her pinched face softened, and her clenched teeth turned into a menacing smile. She sauntered slowly over to me. “What did you do, you ask?”

            She gently looped her arms around my neck and her face positioned just two inches from mine. But hers was a creepy calm, not seductive. I knew no kiss was forthcoming, so I braced for her words, still baffled at what could be the reason for her anger.

            “Well, it’s like this, Mr. Alderson. I have just come from my doctor, and it seems that I’m pregnant. Would you care to explain how that happened?”

            Although I was stunned, I tried at a little levity. “Well, you see, when a man and woman come together like we have…”

            “Knock it off, Eli!” she barked as she shoved me. She then stomped to my sofa, plopped onto it, abruptly crossed her arms and one leg over the other. Then a finger shot up to an eye to wipe a tear away.

            I sat next to her and gently rubbed her knee. She was wearing her typical black leggings, with orange New Balance running shoes. She testily pushed my hand off. I put it back. She pushed it off. I put it back. She half laughed and half cried. “I’m forty years old; I don’t want any more babies. I’m even a grandmother!”

            “I don’t get it. I thought your tubes were tied,” I tried. “You had told me that before you and Doug got married, that you had gotten your tubes tied.”

            “No, I said I was going to, but Doug informed me that he was infertile. And you had told me that you had a vasectomy when you were twenty.”

            “I did, but I thought I told you I had it reversed a couple years ago… That’s why I was so excited to find out about Ethan. As I got older, I began to desire a heritage.”

            “Well, no, I think I would recall you telling me it was reversed, especially a couple months ago when we, you know.”

            “Well, if you recall a couple months ago, when we consummated our relationship, I told you I didn’t have a condom. Then you asked if I had any STD’s. After I said no, you said it was okay to proceed without one.”

            “Right, because I assumed you had been snipped.”

            “I had been, but like I said, it was reversed. When you told me it was okay to proceed, I thought it meant that you wouldn’t be getting pregnant.”

            “And when I said to proceed it was because I trusted that you wouldn’t be giving me an STD. You just gave me a baby instead.”

            “Wow, what a misunderstanding.”

            “So, it seems I’m pregnant due to lack of communication.”

            “I don’t know about lack of communication, just poor quality.”

            “Whatever!” she spewed, crossed her arms again and snorted. Her foot bobbed so intensely, I thought her shoe might fly off.

            “Well, which would you rather I had given you, herpes or a baby?”

            “Herpes,” she spit without hesitation.

            “Ya know, Ariel, I’m actually pretty excited,” I said with gentle smile.

            “Are ya!” she replied with a sarcastically ghoulish expression. “Ya know, I suppose I might feel better about it if you were gonna have a human being growing inside your stomach.”

            I frowned. “Don’t you mean womb?”

            “Oh, shut up!” she barked.

            “Look, Ariel, I’m truly sorry,” I said, and then we sat in silence for a long minute.

            I knelt in front of her and took both of her hands in mine. She didn’t jerk them away, which I was actually expecting. “Listen Ariel, I wasn’t here for you the first time, but I will be this time around. I have plenty of money, so you won’t have to work at the supermarket anymore. I’ll even hire a nanny. I’ll even marry you, with no prenup. You’ll be an instant millionaire after you say I do. You’ll get half if you decide to divorce me.”

            I was delighted to see hope and longing in her eyes. Now she smiled sweetly, no trace of sarcasm or bitterness. She asked, “Was that a proposal?”

            I shrugged and grinned, “Sure.”

            “How romantic,” she joked.

            “That’s what I’m known for.”

            “You’re known to be a womanizing rock star; that’s why my concern was STD’s over pregnancy.”

            With a serious expression, I said, “That’s not gonna be the case with the next chapter of my life… I love you, Ariel. I always have.”

            She put a hand to my cheek. “To be perfectly honest, I loved you, I hated you, and now I love you again.”

            “Okay, well, I could have done without the one in between.”

            “It’s the current one that counts.”

            “Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

            She sighed, stood, and began to pace. “I don’t know, Eli. Everything is happening so fast. What are people gonna think? My husband has only been gone for six months.”

            “It depends on your perspective. I think a lot can happen in half a year. Besides, it’s not like you met some random guy. I was your first boyfriend, and we made a child together. I also kept my distance after Doug passed away.”

            “Kept your distance? Maybe if you returned to California.”

            I stepped up to her. Her arms were crossed defiantly across her chest. I reached behind her head, took off her hair clip, and her long brown hair with a sprinkling of salt cascaded over her shoulders. Since she didn’t resist, I grabbed both of her wrists and placed them onto my shoulders. “Quit being a snot.”

            She gazed at me with hooded eyes and tried not to smile. This caused her to pout, and man did she ever look adorable. I brushed a strand of her hair off of her cheek and kissed her. After a minute she put both hands on my chest and shoved away, did a one eighty and walked toward the window. “Why are you so hard to resist?”

            I followed behind and spooned her. I kissed her cheek and said softly, “Why would you want to resist me?”

            “Because you tend to get me pregnant when I don’t,” she said bitterly.

            “I guarantee that you’re not gonna get anymore pregnant than you already are.”

            She spun around and put her hands on my throat as if to strangle me. She actually began to squeeze harder and harder. I laughed as I grabbed her wrists, and fortunately she laughed too.  We no sooner began kissing again, when a knock at my door made us both jump.

            It was our son and his wife. In the eight months I had been at Mrs. Mendelbright’s, he had only come over to my room a few times. We usually saw each other at band practice. He was grinning, so I grinned back. “Ethan, Amy, come in, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

            “Well, we…” He stopped short when he saw his mother, and his face registered surprise. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

            “Um,” was all she could manage. She looked like a deer in the headlights as she clasped her hands together, making her look even more guilty.

            Ethan smirked. “Is there something going with you two?”

            “Um,” Ariel and I uttered at the same time as we both looked at each other.

            Ethan started laughing and slapped his thigh. Looking at his wife he declared. “I told you they were item.”

            “Honey, we’ve just kind of been hanging out,” Ariel tried. Then she bit her thumb with an  anguished expression. “Well, to be honest, it’s a little more than hanging out. Actually a lot more now, I mean, ooooh, this so confusing.”

            “Mom, I think it’s wonderful!”

            “Really?”

            “Really.”

            “By the way, where’s Crissy?” Ariel asked. Was she purposely trying to change the subject?

            “Aunt Penny and Uncle Arlo are taking her for a pony ride.”

            I liked hearing him refer to my dear friend as Uncle Arlo. But Ariel had a slight edge in her voice when she corrected. “He’s not Uncle Arlo yet.”

            “A few days from now he will be,” Ethan shrugged. Then he looked at me and winked. “We stopped by your place first, Mom. Now I see why you weren’t home.”

            “Okay, Sonny Boy,” Ariel said as she put her hands on her hips. “What are you making the rounds about?”

            “Well, we have an announcement for you, and two for Dad here. The one for Dad alone is… Amy and I are gonna get baptized with Penny and Arlo this Sabbath. We were hoping you’d join us.”

          “Oh, Son, I don’t know, I’ve got some issues,” I told him, and then looked at my main issue. I wanted to continue fornicating with Ariel. If she would marry me, maybe I would get baptized with them. I know that’s a terrible excuse, but that’s where my mind was at back then.

          “Behold, now’s the day of salvation, Dad,” Ethan declared, quoting 2 Corinthians 6:2.

          “You mean I’m not invited?” Ariel asked, and I think she genuinely felt left out.

          “Well, I know you don’t like Bible truth, Mom, so why bother asking?”

          “That’s not true,” she defended. “I’m just more about grace, faith and love than you all.”

          “Faith without works is dead,” Ethan said. (See James 2:14-26)

          “We’ve been down this road before,” Ariel said putting a hand up. “What’s your announcement for both of us?”

          “Well,” Ethan began, then glanced affectionately at his blond haired wife who beamed happily back at him. “We just came from the doctor. Crissy is going to have a baby brother or sister.”

          “Wonderful!” I enthused. “You’re not gonna believe this. Ariel just… Ow!”

          I felt a sharp pain on my ankle and looked down just in time to see Ariel’s foot retracting away from my leg.

          “Mom, why did you just kick Dad! What were you about to say, Dad?”

          “Oh, nothing, never mind,” I replied as I rubbed my ankle.

          “What’s going on you two?” Ethan begged. “Mom, you’re not sick are you?”

          “Oh, no Honey, it’s nothing like that,” she replied. Then she looked at me as if for an answer. I had none. Especially after that kick! “Well, it’s like this. I was just at the doctor myself, and, well, Crissy’s not the only one that’s gonna have a baby brother or sister… You are too.”

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 14

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 14

ARIEL

BEHOLD, CHILDREN ARE A HERITAGE FROM THE LORD, THE FRUIT OF THE WOMB IS A REWARD (Psalm 127:3)

            “Where are we going?” I asked Penny as we prepared to leave her clinic in her pickup truck.

            My sister struggled to get her seat belt under her swollen abdomen. It was the Saturday before Memorial Day weekend, and my nephew was due to be born in early July. “You’ll see, it’s not far.”

            “Why so secretive?” I asked as gravel spun from underneath her tire as we exited her clinic parking lot.

            “I’m not being secretive,” she said, and then inhaled sharply through her nose and sighed. “But you’re not gonna like what I have to say, so I want the timing and atmosphere to be just right.”

            I felt myself tense, and I chewed on my lower lip. I knew what this was about. I may as well have had a scarlet letter on my chest. I recalled the passion between Eli and I the previous night. Although our passionate kisses had turned into something much more weeks ago, last night’s liaison ended with something more than exchanging ‘I love you’ with each other.

            “Marry me, Ariel,” Eli had whispered into my ear at the height of our passion.

            “Okay,” my lips had murmured against his cheek.

            It had become a well-known secret that Eli and I had become an item. I also thought our intimacy was a secret. But secrets involving sin lead to paranoia. So as I road with my sister, with her admitting she wanted to discuss something uncomfortable, I assumed she knew that I was fornicating. I figured Eli must have told Arlo, and Arlo relayed the gossip to her. Now she was going to get back at me for all the years I periodically accused her of promiscuity and hypocrisy.

             I was a professed Christian with regular attendance at worship, and an upstanding citizen involved with PTA and also assistant coach of soccer. However I did have some skeletons in the closet. These bone fragments of sin may seem like nothing to the culture at large. For my most grievous violations of the Decalogue was premarital sex with both of my future husbands, as well as Eli, who now might be my future husband.

            For the casual believer, no big deal, right? Well, as a deaconess in my family’s  conservative church, what Eli and I were doing in the bedroom loomed large and shameful in my mind. Ironically, the looming large actually disappeared as soon as I started kissing him.

            “What are we doing here?” I asked with a frown as she pulled her truck into the Cotton Creek Cove Fellowship parking lot. “You’re not taking me to one of your services.”

            “Sabbath school and worship was this morning,” she replied. “I want to show you the church’s namesake.”

            “What?”

            “I want to show you Cotton Creek.”

            “I thought you wanted to talk to me about something?”

            “I do, at the creek.”

            I shrugged it off and walked with her down a paved trail behind the church. My petite sister walked with great agility. When I was as pregnant as she was now, I waddled everywhere I went. It was in fact beautiful where we stopped. The stream rippled soothing sounds over rocks as the creek twisted under a canopy of large Cottonwood trees and lush green pines.

            Penny smiled with satisfaction as she gently rubbed her belly and stared at the chuckling stream. She seemed to relax as my anxiety grew. The beauty of the place and the gorgeousness of the spring afternoon seemed to mock my unease. A half dozen possible replies to her potential accusations raced through my head. Impatiently I blurted, “So what did you want to me talk about?”

            She glanced at me and then pointed to a bench. “Let’s go sit.”

            ‘Grrrr,’ I thought. But then I was pleased as she waddled a little as I followed her to the bench.

            “It’s pretty exciting that the band’s CD is going to be out in a couple weeks,” Penny said.

            “Yes, it is.”

            “Arlo and Eli sure have been getting lots of interview requests. Both Christian periodicals as well as secular.”

            “Yes, they have.”

            “It is a pretty interesting story. I mean two forty year old guys that spent almost two decades in a Satanic band together suddenly reappear a few years after the dissolution with a Christian band.”

            “A huh.”

            “There seem to be quite a few skeptics.”

            “Right.”

            “I hope they don’t go on tour for a while, what with the baby and all.”

            “Surely this isn’t what you wanted me to come here and talk about?”

            “No,” she said, her face growing serious. “I sold my share of the clinic.”

            This was actually no surprise; she had thrown around the idea for months. She wanted to take her time with the baby but still use her veterinarian talents volunteering with the animal rescue organization she worked with.

            “I was kind of expecting that,” I said. “But surely that’s not why you brought me here.”

            “No,” she said, eyeing me cautiously. She looked away, placed her hands between her knees and sighed.

            How could my spontaneous, opinionated sister be dillydallying so much? I couldn’t stand the tension any longer. “Look Pen, I know what you want to talk about.”

            “You do?” she frowned. “So Arlo must have talked to Eli already, and Eli told you?”

            “No,” I frowned. “I assume Eli told Arlo, and Arlo told you.”

            “Are we talking about the same thing?” Penny’s frown deepened.

            “Look, I know you’re all religious now, and into the Bible, and all what Eli refers to as primitive Godliness stuff. I know what Eli and I have been doing isn’t up to your new standards. Frankly they’re not up to mine either. But I’m human, and in love, and just so you know, we are getting married.”

            Penny’s eyes became like saucers and her mouth gaped open. “What? Married? When?”

            “I don’t know when. He just asked me last night.”

            “Well, talk about stealing somebody’s thunder,” she grinned as she ran a hand through her silky dark hair, which was now well past her shoulders and as long as I had ever seen it.

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean what I wanted to talk to you about. Will you be my maid of honor?”

            Now I wasn’t the sharpest needle in the sewing basket, but I immediately put one and one together. Stealing thunder and maid of honor. “You agreed to marry Arlo?”

            She looked as happy as I had ever seen her as she bit her lip and nodded. Arlo had been practically begging her for months, but she would only respond with maybes. We hugged and I said, “Congratulations, I’d be honored to be your maid of honor.”

            “Congratulations to you, too,” she said.

            “Will you be my maid of honor?” I asked.

            “I too would be honored. But don’t you want one of your daughters this time?”

            “Who would I pick? Besides you’ve always been my maid of honor. Hopefully this will be the third time’s a charm.”

            She laughed and I asked, “How long until after the baby’s born will you wait?”

            Her face grew serious. “Actually, we’re getting married a week from today.”

            “In a week! Penny, weddings take time to plan. Besides planning, do you really want to be a month away from giving birth in the wedding photos?”

            “Well, here’s the thing. It’s gonna be low key and simple. Other than the parishioners here, there will only be a handful of people in attendance. We’re saying our vows right over there.”

            She pointed at a bend in the creek, just past were the length of water rippled rocks ended.

            “Arlo and I will be in baptismal gowns rather than a suit and dress. Immediately after we say our ‘I do’s’, we are going down into that three foot deep part of the creek to get baptized. So, you could say it will be an unconventional wedding.”

            “I will say. That’s definitely a unique setup,” I admitted. Then I asked her something quite personal, but she is my sister. “So have you and Arlo, you know?”

            “I know what?” she replied innocently.

            “You know, doing the deed?”

            “What deed?” she asked with a frown.

            “Oh, for Pete’s sake, have you two been boinking?”

            She laughed, and I realized that I had just been played by my ultra-serious sister. I laughed too. It was good to see her as lighthearted as I had ever seen her in her entire life. I had viewed her newfound religion as rigid and legalistic, but her joy was palpable. I also considered her impending motherhood and romance as the source. But going forward, there was no denying her and Arlo’s shared faith was at the center of their bond as well as their joy.

            “No, conceiving little Arlo was the only time that we’ve made love.”

            “You’re naming my nephew Arlo Junior?” I asked. Arlo was not necessarily a bad name. That said, I would never, ever name a child of mine Arlo.

            “It will likely be his middle name. Right now we’re considering Jeremiah for his first.”

            I nodded as I refrained from frowning. I don’t think I’d consider Jeremiah as a name for my child, but it wasn’t bad. He’ll probably go by Jerry.

            “When I told Arlo he was going to be a father, he knelt and kissed my belly and quoted Jeremiah 1:5.”

            “Interesting, but I’m glad my days of naming babies are over,” I chuckled. “As a matter of fact, I just had my first sign of menopause.”

            “Oh yeah? What sign was that?”

            “For the first time last month, without being pregnant, I missed my period.”

            Penny looked at me with a stunned expression. “You know your admission about, um, misbehaving with Eli? Did he wear a certain something?”

            “You mean a condom? No, but he had a vasectomy in his early twenties.”

            “He also had it reversed in his late thirties,” Penny declared.

            “No he didn’t, he would have told me,” I replied, thinking what she assumed ridiculous.

            “I don’t know about the second part of what you just said, but I know for a fact about the first part.”

            “How?” I wanted to know as my pulse quickened. It seemed she did, in fact, know something.

            “You know back in February when Arlo shut himself up in his room, and I went and told him he was gonna be a father?”

            “Of course.”

            “It was a couple days after. Arlo, Eli, and myself were chatting before their band practiced, and I distinctly remember Eli talking about being pretty serious with a lady right after their band broke up. She wanted a baby, so he got it reversed. But then he went on to say that she turned out to be infertile. Some time later, they parted ways.”

            “I don’t believe it; he would have told me.”

            “I’m just telling you what I overheard,” she said with a shrug. Then not understanding my fear, she grinned and said, “How about that? You made me aware that I was pregnant, and now it seems I made you aware that you could be pregnant.”

            “Yeah, how about that?” I mumbled.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 13

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 13

ELI

THEREFORE, LAYING ASIDE ALL MALICE, ALL DECEIT, HYPOCRISY, ENVY, AND ALL EVIL SPEAKING… INDEED YOU HAVE TASTED THAT THE LORD IS GRACIOUS (1 Peter 2:1, 3)

            “Hi Eli,” Ariel said a little breathlessly as she entered the church basement. She unzipped her puffy, shiny white winter coat revealing a low cut top that my eyes lingered on a second too long before they met hers. There seemed to be a twinkle of satisfaction in her windows to the soul before becoming serious.

            “You’ve got to talk Arlo out of it,” Ariel insisted, her large brown eyes pleading. It was about a half an hour before our band was to practice. She pulled her long brown hair back into a ponytail, her movements causing her chest to stick out even further. But her words caused me to tense rather than lust.

            For some reason I thought she was talking about suicide. But that couldn’t be. I had breakfast with him earlier in the day, and he had apologized profusely for shutting himself away in his room for a few days. He seemed mellow, even happy, yet I could tell he had been preoccupied. He also seemed on the verge of telling me something, but Mrs. Mendelbright kept lingering around the table.

            “Talk him out of what, quitting the band?” I asked, not knowing what else it could be.

            “He’s quitting the band?”

            “No, I mean I don’t know. I was just throwing up a guess since I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            “Oh,” she replied, her lovely eyes getting even larger. “So he didn’t tell you then?”

            “Tell me what?”

            “Oh, never mind. I thought you knew.”

            “Knew what?”

            “Tick a lock,” she said, and then made a locking motion at her lips. “It’s not for me to tell, like I said, I thought you knew. I’m gonna run a quick errand.”

            She turned and began to walk briskly away. We were in her family’s church, and our band’s equipment was in the basement where we practiced. It had been two weeks since our reverse hug in the parking lot, which was also when we saw Penny and Arlo share a quick kiss followed by an embrace. In the days after, things between Ariel and me had become both more relaxed, yet strangely awkward because of sexual tension not acted upon.

            I grabbed her around the waist, and we fell onto a sofa that was situated in a corner of the basement. It was our first physical contact since the parking lot incident. “Oh no, you’re not.”

            She giggled and squirmed. Our heads knocked together, but it didn’t hurt much. Then as we wrestled in a sitting position, our cheeks ended up pressed together. I think we both somehow did this on purpose. Then we looked at each other and I kissed her. Then she kissed me. Then we kissed each other as we heard a door open. I abruptly stood and she tumbled onto the floor. I helped her up and said, “Sorry.”

            Ethan, Amy and Crystal came down the stairs. When Crystal spotted us, she ran to Ariel and shouted, “Gammy!”

            I sat back on the couch and asked our granddaughter, “Does Poppop get a hug?”

            She shyly shook her head, making her blonde curls jiggle. I sniffed, made fists and rubbed my eyes as if I was crying. Then she said, “okay,” and flew into my arms.

            “What were you two doing?” Ethan asked.

            Ariel and I glanced guiltily at each other as if we were a couple teenagers and our son was one of our parents. Ariel and I spoke at the same time. She said, “talking,” and I said “nothing.”

            “I thought I saw you helping Mom up off of the floor,” Ethan said.

            I didn’t know what to say. Ariel and I looked at each other. Neither of us wanted to lie, but how could we say why? Thankfully he shrugged and said, “Oh well, nevermind.”

            Sometimes playing dumb really does work.

            As our band practiced, I kept eyeing Arlo all evening. He seemed normal, maybe even a little more lighthearted than usual. So what could be so bad that Ariel wanted me to talk him out of? He and I were the last to leave band practice, and as I contemplated how or what to ask him, he solved the dilemma for me.

            “I asked Penny to marry me,” Arlo said with a sly grin as my mouth dropped open.

            Although I was in fact stunned, I calmly joked. “Well that must have been some kind of hug you two had the other week.”

            “Oh, if you only knew.”

            “So when’s the big day?”

            “She hasn’t said yes yet.”

            “But you think she will?”

            “I do.”

            “That’s what you’re hoping she’ll say one day soon.”

            He eyed me cautiously, and I soon understood why. “Penny’s pregnant.”

            Because of his religious zeal over the last couple years, it didn’t occur to me that Arlo might be the father. I knew that Penny had had a series of flings throughout her thirty eight years, but no serious relationships. I also knew that the recent funk that Arlo had been in had something to do with a child. However, I thought it had something to do with his ex-wife.

            So in the spur of the moment, I put one, plus two, plus three together. But instead of coming up with six, it turned out to be another equation. One, Arlo had been upset over a pregnancy or child. Two, Penny was pregnant, and Arlo was in love with her, and debating whether or not to raise another man’s child. Three, he asked Penny to marry him, therefore deciding to raise a child that wasn’t spawned by him.

            “That’s a very honorable thing to want to do, Arlo,” I told him. “I know if Ariel and I had reacquainted before she married her last husband, I would have gladly raised her daughters as their stepdad.”

            Arlo frowned and responded simply with, “Huh?”

            He was puzzled on a couple of fronts. Turns out I divulged too much information about my feelings for Ariel. Secondly, I discovered that Arlo was in fact the one that impregnated Penny. But how?

            Don’t misunderstand, I know the birds and the bees. I meant with the religious devotion he had been trying to witness to me over the last couple of years, how did he come to impregnate Penny out of wedlock? To him, this was sin. It became a bit of a stumbling block to me as I tried to become a follower of Jesus, rather than just an admirer. I was making the mistake of watching Arlo, and my son for an example, rather than Jesus. I was even looking to Ariel, the woman I found myself lusting after. But if you look to any person other than Christ as an example, you’re bound to be disappointed.

            “Oh,” Arlo gazed at me with regretful eyes. “You see… what happened… um.”

            Realization dawned on me. “So, Penny has a bun in the oven, but you are the one, shall we say, that provided the yeast?”

            He winced, nodded, took off his baseball cap that he was wearing backward, ran his hands through his long blonde hair, and then winced some more. “Are you disappointed?”

            “Yeah I’m disappointed,” I replied evenly. “You come across like the Apostle Paul, often making me feel like a degenerate because I don’t have your passion, zeal, and devotion. Then you not only fornicate but are fathering an illegitimate child.”

            A look flashed onto Arlo’s face that I hadn’t seen since we were on stage together in ‘The Sons of Molech.’ It was a glimpse of the sneer and growl he used to display at our audience, only without the gothic makeup. “Yeah, well I guess you’d know something about fathering illegitimate children.”

            I shrugged, “Yes, I would.”

            He shook his head in disgust, then put his face in his hands, sat in a metal folding chair and began to weep. “I’m sorry, Eli, I truly am. I sinned with Penny. I even wanted to last night. I already loved her, but making a child together… I feel a bond with her I never felt with anyone before. Yes I sinned. But just like 1 John 2:1 tells us. If anyone sins we have an Advocate in Jesus.”

            I crouched by him and patted his knee. “It’s cool, Arlo.”

            He looked at me with bleary eyes. “If you drop the soap, you don’t stop taking a shower.”

            “Huh?” I inquired, feeling myself edge a little away from him.

            He continued, telling me how he went to a pastor in his distress, and was counseled through an analogy of taking a shower. If you drop the soap, it doesn’t mean the shower’s over. You pick it up and continue getting clean. Therefore, if you sin, you ask for forgiveness, repent, and continue to get spiritually clean.

            It did strike a chord with me. I was getting close to becoming a follower of Christ, rather than an admirer. I had bonded with my son, who was deeply spiritual. He was also being influenced by Arlo, and becoming a student of the whole Bible, as well as history. There was also a bond being formed with my son’s mother that was both different and similar to the one we had as teenagers.

            When we were young, I used to think of Ariel as pretty and prude. It was how wholesome and untouchable she seemed that made her all the more desirable. Now there was a similar, yet different atmosphere about her. When we were young, long conservative skirts seemed to be her uniform. Now it was form fitting leggings and tight tops. But that was then, and this was now. One style was decided by her mother, while the other was by herself.

            I’ve never met a woman I was more attracted to than Ariel. And I’ve met plenty. Maybe a large aspect was her seeming untouchable. As a rock star, I had a bevy of attractive women throwing themselves at me. Why do we humans so often want that which is forbidden? When we were young, it was her virginal wholesomeness that kept her from me for a long time. Now it was her recent widowhood, coupled with her skepticism of me when I first arrived.

            Out in the church parking lot, I watched Arlo’s taillights disappear as I put some things onto the passenger seat of my pickup truck. Right as I turned and shut the door, a body loomed with a voice that said, “You’re just now leaving?”

            Startled, maybe even frightened, I reeled back and slammed the side of my head into the door of my truck. As I winced and rubbed my noggin, the female voice gasped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean scare you, Eli.”

            “I wasn’t scared, little lady,” I replied with a mockingly macho voice. “I was just making sure my door was shut with my head.”

            She laughed but then looked a little uneasy. “I was doing some things in the church office when I noticed you and Arlo leaving… So did you?”

            “Find out about Penny being pregnant and the marriage proposal?”

            “Okay, good, so did you talk some sense into him?” She asked as she casually unzipped her puffy coat halfway down again. Why were we outside? She had to be purposely enticing me. It was painful, but I kept my eyes glued to hers.

            “I don’t think that’s my business, Ariel. Besides, she only said maybe, not yes.”

            “Maybe with Penny or me might as well be yes when it comes to guys.”

            “Why are you so against Penny marrying Arlo? He’s a good man, and well to do.”

            “Because Penny isn’t the relationship type, and they’ve only know each other for like two minutes.”

            “They’ve known each other long enough and well enough to make a baby.”

            “That’s because Arlo’s a hypocrite.”

            “Why is he a hypocrite?”

            “Getting so exacting and legalistic with the Bible, and then he goes and fornicates.”

            “What about Penny? It takes two to tango. You all come from a religious family. She’s been a professed Christian a lot longer than Arlo.”

            She shrugged nonchalantly. “I love my sister, but she’s a hypocrite too.”

            “What about you?” I asked as I leaned into kiss her.

            Before I connected, she giggled and shoved me away. “I’m only a borderline hypocrite.”

            She turned and began to walk briskly away, her female form swaying in the moonlight. She called over her shoulder, “Goodnight.”

            In few quick steps I caught up to her, grasped her hand, and spun her around. “Let’s cross the border.”

            A minute later I pulled my mouth from hers. Grinning I said, “Hypocrite.”

            Smiling back, she abruptly zipped her coat up, spun on her heels, walked briskly away again and said over her shoulder, “Close, but not quite.”

            “Yet,” I said.

            She stopped, turned to face me, and with a flirtatious smile said, “Maybe.”

            Then for a third time, she spun and walked briskly away, disappearing into the night.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 9

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 9

ELI

THE LAW OF THE LORD IS PERFECT, CONVERTING THE SOUL; THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD IS SURE MAKING WISE THE SIMPLE (Psalm 19:7)

            Life is a strange trip. The whole year I lived in Iowa as a seventeen year old, I could not wait to graduate high school and leave. But one thing that did give me contentment was my friendship with Ariel Grobstick. Then that friendship turned romantic right before Arlo and I fulfilled our plans to go west to pursue our dream of rock and roll stardom. I still remember those last words exchanged between Ariel and me as if it were yesterday.

            “I gave you my virginity!” she had told me with tears pouring out of her eyes. “You said you love me more than anybody on the planet.”

            “I do, I truly do, Ariel,” I pleaded, her words were like a knife in my gut. Yet the second part of my response displayed how cold hearted I was. “More than any person, Ariel. But my first love has always been music. I need to do whatever it takes to be successful, and the L.A. rock scene is the best place for that. Come with me.”

            “Why, so I can be your mistress?” she replied bitterly.

            “What do you mean? I would never cheat on you.”

            “You just said you love your guitar more than me.”

            “Ariel…”

            “Goodbye, Elijah,” she spit, turning and walking briskly away from me. I didn’t see her again for more than two decades.

            It was now midwinter in Iowa. Despite feeling like the frozen heartland was a prison as a teenager, I was now forty years of age and had been residing there for four months of my own free will. And I had never been happier in my life. It was all because of the instant family I had miraculously acquired by opening a letter one day.

            It had all turned out better than I had expected, but it hadn’t been without some challenges. First of all I needed to gain trust. Not only because I was a virtual stranger to my twenty two year old son, but also because of my rather crazy past as a wild rock star.

            Then two weeks before Christmas, Ariel’s second husband, who had been seriously injured in a scuffle with her first husband, died suddenly after suffering a stroke. Since Ariel had been the most skeptical of me upon my arrival, and since we had been lovers as teenagers, the death of her husband made me extra uncomfortable.

            Not long after meeting my son, we began jamming together. In other words we were creating music. He was a fantastic singer, and his wife was a superb drummer. When Arlo arrived, he took up the bass with us. Over the days and weeks, we evolved into a pretty tight little band and practiced three or four times a week.

            In the beginning of these sessions, Ariel was present every time. It was as if she was a mother hen making sure that I wasn’t a wolf. I can’t blame her. If ever a band’s record needed a parental advisory label it was ‘The Sons of Molech’. Even while a member of the band, I often distanced myself from the content, sighting that I wrote the music and Izzy wrote the lyrics.

            After the death of Ariel’s husband, she only joined us a half a dozen times when we practiced. On this day, in mid-February, she arrived with our five year old granddaughter. I tried not to notice how well Ariel filled out the black leggings she wore. Her dark hair with sprinkles of salt was pulled back in a ponytail. She rarely wore makeup, but this day a little mascara framed her large lovely brown eyes.

            In one hand Crystal carried the little guitar I had bought her. I typically gave her a five to ten minute guitar lesson before our band practiced. She was surprisingly good. Could musical talent be genetic? I knew little of such things.

            In Crystal’s other hand, she held a card. She shyly smiled as she shoved it toward me, using the name she called me, which I absolutely loved. “Here, Poppop.”

            “Thank you, Crissy,” I said cheerly as I opened it. It had a cartoonish picture of two kittens holding hands. Inside it asked, ‘Will you be my Valentine?’

            “I’d be delighted to be your Valentine, Sweetheart,” I told her as I spread my arms, She leapt into me for a hug.

            I glanced up at Ariel and she smiled happily at us. When we broke from our hug, Ariel handed another card to Crystal, took her guitar from her and said, “Go give this to Uncle Arlo.”

            I felt my toes curl. Not only at being one on one with Ariel, but I was fearful of how Arlo would handle a Valentine card. He was really into what he called primitive Godliness. Not only the Bible and the Bible only, which was great, but he also became a student of history, which was also great. Yet in my opinion, he took it too far, often preaching about the pagan origins of most of our holidays.

            But I couldn’t help chuckling when Arlo’s face lit up in exaggerated glee. Then he picked Crystal up and spun her around three or four times as she squealed with delight.

            Ariel pulled up a chair, sat, and strummed Crystal’s guitar a few times. “How about you give me a guitar lesson?”

            “Seriously?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

            “Sure, why not,” she replied with a shrug.

            “You never wanted any guitar lessons twenty years ago.”

            “I didn’t need any,” she said with a coy smile. “You paid attention to me back then without me asking.”

            Words got stuck in my throat. Was she flirting with me? It had only been two months since her husband passed away. Was there a timetable for grief and its extent? I suppose everybody was different.

            “Eli, will do me a favor?”

            “Sure, but let’s get a bigger guitar.”

             “I’m not talking about that,” she said with a little giggle. Then she became serious. “Will you please stop avoiding me, and tiptoeing around me.”

            “Am I?”

            “Ya think.”

            “Apparently not,” I said with a smile.

            Once again she giggled, but then became serious. “Before we, ya know,  made a baby, you were one of the best friends I ever had. Ever since our senior year, I’d look up at the stars at night and recall how wonderful it was sitting next to you gazing at the twinkling heavens and talking the night away. Now, to have you so close, and only to be avoided. It, well, hurts.”

            “I’m sorry, Ariel. I truly am. The truth is, I have been avoiding you. But its only because I hurt you all those years ago. I felt like my presence here only made things worse for you. I even thought about going back to California for a while right after Doug passed away. But selfishly, I have been enjoying getting to know Ethan and his family, and couldn’t get myself to go.”

            “Well I’m glad you didn’t go. I admit, I was skeptical when you first arrived back in October. But your presence has been a blessing to us all. Watching you bond with Ethan and Crystal has warmed my heart, and I never would have believed it possible.”

            “Really, why’s that?”

            “You have to ask? Sweet Eli Alderson became sinister Eli Endor. That whole ‘Sons of Molech’ thing was as if you left me and married a prostitute.”

            “I’ve come to realize over the last couple years how wrong my thinking and rationalizing was. But you have to believe me when I say I didn’t take the whole satanism thing seriously. I looked at our band like a traveling horror show, and I was an actor playing a part. Like Alice Cooper. You know he’s a Christian. And as far as I know, he still tours with his traveling horror show. As for me, ‘The Sons of Molech’ are done forever.”

            “It helps that half the band is dead,” she said.

            “Even if they weren’t, Arlo quit, and I was following on his heels. Now, writing Christian songs with Ethan… It feels redemptive. Like making amends for promoting that which was dark and evil.”

            “Where do you see this all going?” Ariel asked with an eager expression.

            I shrugged. “We’ve got enough songs to record a CD. Then who knows? Play some shows, go on tour.”

            The door to the church auditorium opened. Ariel and I both looked and watched Penny walk in. She hadn’t been to one of our band’s rehearsals in months. I noticed Arlo slink in the opposite direction. I wasn’t the only one tiptoeing around one of the Grobstick sisters. Although they both had different last names now.

            “What’s up with Arlo and Penny?” I asked.

            Ariel looked at Arlo. “What do you mean?”

            “She came in and he went to the other side of the room.”

            “So?” she replied with a shrug.

            “Oh, I don’t know. When he first arrived here in Iowa, not long after I did, they seemed awfully chummy. Then all of a sudden they don’t seem to want anything to do with each other.”

            “I do know he’s been seeing Penny’s assistant, Abby.”

            “Oh, I think they are just friends. He goes to church with her. They’re both into that Biblical Sabbath thing. He says the Bible and the Bible only, something like primitive Godliness.”

            “Primitive Godliness,” she snorted. “If Abby’s into something like that, maybe she should stop having one night stands while she’s engaged.”

            “What, you don’t believe she could repent and be forgiven?”

            “No, I do,” she said with a bit of a whine. “I didn’t mean to sound judgmental. It does seem like something weird is going on with the three of them, though. I know Penny had a thing for Arlo, but it seems he has more in common with Abby. Yet the two women have to work together.”

            “So what did Penny tell you?”

            “Nothing. She doesn’t talk to me about her love life. But I know my sister, and I observe… Speaking about the Sabbath situation, I wish you’d tell Arlo to stop brainwashing Ethan. Now he’s talking about going to that Seventh Day church.”

            “Brainwashing?” I chuckled. “They’ve just been studying together. I’ve even joined them.”

            “I guess Arlo is a fairly new Christian. I suppose he doesn’t understand the Sabbath was changed to Sunday in honor of the resurrection.”

            “He and I have discussed that. He says baptism is what honors the resurrection. He says Sunday keeping became a prominent tradition in the fourth century when Constantine made Christianity a legal religion. When that happened a bunch of the pagan traditions entered the church. One of them, the worship of the sun God, on the venerable day of the sun, was Sunday which became instituted.”

            “Look at you, Mr. Bible scholar,” she joked, yet I detected an air of annoyance.

            “He said the Bible says God doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6). God wrote the Ten Commandments with his own finger, and the Sabbath is right in the middle (Exodus 20:8-11).”

            “But we’re not under the law, we’re under grace.”

            “Do we then make void the law through faith. Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. That is Romans 3:31.”

            “You’re freaking me out, Eli,” she with a smile. “I guess you’ve convinced me that you’re not a satanist.”

            “Hey, Ethan is not here yet, and it seems Crissy is more interested in playing drums right now. Are you really interested in a guitar lesson?”

            “Sure, why not?”

            “I’ve got an acoustic guitar out in my truck.”

            My Shelby Mustang was in storage for the winter, so I was just about to unlock the pickup truck I had acquired when Ariel came up behind me. She had a look of wonder on face as her eyes danced with excitement. “Eli?”

            “Yeah?”

            “Before we go back in, will you hold me like you used to, and we’ll look at the stars for a minute.”

            “Sure,” I replied with an easy smile. She turned and backed into me, and I wrapped my arms around her, so we were spooning. She turned her gaze toward the sky with a sentimental look on her face. I inhaled her scent, and was considering kissing her cheek, when we heard a murmur of voices. It was Penny and Arlo, over by her pickup truck. They didn’t see us. Ariel suddenly lost interest in the night sky.

            Penny retrieved something from her truck. It was an envelope, and she handed it to Arlo. “So you say she quit her job and is leaving town?”

            “I guess so… I’m sorry,” Penny consoled.

            “It’s no big deal, we were just friends. I did hope we could be more, but I just couldn’t…”

            “Couldn’t what?”

            “Get you out of my head,” he blurted.

            “Oh Arlo,” she said. Then she went to tiptoes and kissed his lips. Then she hugged him and pressed the side of her face onto his chest as they held each other. With her cheek pressed into Arlo’s chest, she spotted Ariel and me watching them. She quickly shoved away from Arlo. As soon as she did this, Ariel abruptly stepped out of my backward embrace. Then we all just looked at each other for a long speechless moment.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 7

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 7

PENNY

THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, AND DESPERATELY WICKED; WHO CAN KNOW IT? (Jeremiah 17:9)

            “Hey,” my assistant Abby said with a breathless grin as she breezed into the clinic. “Did you have a good weekend?”

            “It was okay,” I replied. “I’m going to guess you had a good weekend.”

            I hadn’t seen Abby this happy in more than a year. Ever since the twenty eight year old’s fiancée ended their relationship the previous autumn, she had been depressed. He did this right after she discovered she was pregnant. I had thought him a creep, but her friendship with Arlo brought to light an interesting twist to the conception of her baby daughter Lindsey.

            She giggled. “Yeah, I had a really nice weekend.”

            “Oh yeah, what’d you do?”

            “Well, Arlo Aldo went to church with me Saturday,” she said breezily.

            I felt myself go rigid. A few nights previously, he and I had talked for a couple hours. I felt like we bonded, and I even told him as we parted that if he wanted to do something this weekend to give me a call. He very cheerfully said okay. But apparently he chose to spend time with my pretty, decade younger assistant. Was I jealous? I think I was, but why?

            “Oh yeah?” I replied, purposely appearing disinterested.

            “Yeah,” she said with more giggles. “Then yesterday he came out with my little rock climbing group. He had never done it before, but he was a natural. All those muscles aren’t just for show.”

            “That’s nice,” I said, leafing through some papers, and pretending to be looking for something as we talked. “So do you have a thing for Arlo?”

            My normally plain Jane redheaded assistant had an air of sexiness about her and looked cute as she crinkled her nose. “I think I do. He’s so handsome and rugged, yet gentle.”

            Oh well, lost at love again… What was I thinking? Lost at love? Arlo and I had one lengthy conversation with occasional, mild flirting.

            “So when are you gonna see him again?”

            “I don’t know,” she replied with a shrug. Then her bubbly demeanor dissipated. “Truth is, I think I’m more interested in him than he is me.”

            “Oh yeah, why’s that?”

            “Well, as he put it, the ink isn’t dry on his divorce yet. Plus he treated me more like we’re pals rather than, you know, mutually romantically interested.”

            “I see,” I replied, hopeful that all wasn’t lost with Arlo and me. But then something dawned on me. If Abby and I were secretly and not so secretly competing for the same guy, how would that affect our working relationship? She was the best assistant I ever had. Oh well, I’d cross that bridge later, and hope that it wasn’t rickety.

            Two days later I was invited to a small gathering at our family’s church to listen to some of the songs Eli and Ethan’s band had been practicing. Of which, Arlo played bass. I decided to do something I rarely did and wasn’t very good at. I made myself look girly.

            I didn’t want to overdo it. I didn’t want to be obvious. A little mascara to enhance my big brown eyes and a little lip gloss to sensualize my lips. I had pretty fantastic legs, if I do say so myself, so I dug out one of the two shorter skirts I owned. It was denim, and I forgot how high it was above the knee. I tugged it down, but it didn’t help much. I put brown penny loafers on my feet and wondered if anyone would comment on Penny wearing penny loafers.

            I spotted Arlo’s bass guitar in a stand down in the church basement where the band had been practicing. But I saw no Arlo. Everyone else was there. Then I heard a toilet flush behind me. Then water running in the sink. Then paper towels departing from a dispenser. Then the restroom door flung open, and the happy hulk emerged.

            “Hey, pretty Penny in penny loafers,” he grinned. I couldn’t help grinning back, even though I tried not to. So it took all of three minutes for someone to make a ‘Penny in penny loafers’ comment. I knew I should have worn pumps, or even my old cowboy boots.

             “You clean up nice,” he added.

            This is where I exposed one of my biggest flaws. That was speaking before thinking, rather than thinking before speaking. “Yeah, but do I look as good as Abby up on a rock in spandex athletic pants?”
            His grin grew bigger. “That wasn’t horrible to look at.”

            “You know, to lust after a woman is committing adultery with her already in your heart.”

            “I’m not married anymore, so I no longer have a covenant with my eyes,” he said, quoting Job 31:1.

            “Is that right?”

            “That’s right, so I’m gonna go ahead and admire your surprisingly shapely legs too.”

            “Surprisingly?”

            “Yeah. For a girl that tries to dress like a guy, I would have guessed your legs would be hairy.”

            “I don’t try to dress like a guy. I just don’t put a whole lot of effort into being feminine.”

            “Well you should. You’re lovely to behold when you do.”

            I snorted a laugh. “You call this effort? You should see me in me my blonde wig, leather skirt, and black stockings with heels.”

            “Okay,” he said eagerly.

            “Too bad, I hate heels.”

            “Hence the penny loafers,” he said, and then frowned. “Do you really have a blonde wig?”

            “I do. But it was given to me as a joke. I’ve only worn it once. Why do you prefer blondes? I don’t know that you’re even a gentleman.”

            “Actually I don’t, but you in a blonde wig would be a curious sight. You in a leather skirt and stockings would be an even curiouser site.”

            “I don’t think curiouser is a word. Besides, it’s character that counts, not appearance,” I declared, and then felt a wave of hypocrisy as the marriage I wrecked flashed into my mind.

            “Very true,” he agreed. “And to be honest, as a fairly new Christian, and a brand new single man, I’m still figuring out the boundaries of appropriateness when it comes to admiring attractive females, and admiration crossing over into lust.”

            There were around forty or fifty people milling about. Eli interrupted numerous conversations as he directed the band to assemble and begin play. They were fantastic!

            Afterward, Arlo and I went to an old fashion café. He had a piece of cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. I had a strawberry shake. With my penny loafers and white ankle socks passing as bobby socks, it seemed like we were on a fifties style date. Was it date? I certainly felt like a teeny bopper when I couldn’t help asking, “So, do you like Abby?”

            He shrugged. “She’s a nice girl.”

            “I know she has a major crush on you.”

            He stopped a fork full of pie halfway to his mouth. With raised eyebrows he replied, “She does?”

            “Can’t you tell?”

            “Well, I mean, we do get along pretty good. And she’s nice looking. But I’ve only been divorced for about two minutes, so I’m not ready for a relationship.”

            I felt both relieved as well as disappointed. Did I want a relationship? A relationship with Arlo Aldo? I do know I wanted to go to bed with him. But would he be willing? I wasn’t a committed Christian back then. When I went out on a date, which was becoming more and more infrequent, it was usually with someone I already knew. Therefore, we usually ended up in bed. But Arlo seemed to take his faith very seriously. If he kept what he referred to as the Biblical Sabbath, I highly doubted that he would be willing to fornicate.

            Arlo continued about Abby. “Besides, as you know, she has some issues. And I have enough of my own right now.”

            “By issues, do you mean her daughter Lindsey? I know with her family belonging to a conservative church and all, it was difficult for her to have a child out of wedlock.”

            “Actually, her family was pretty cool. It’s the guilt she still feels over her fiancée.”

            “Guilt over her fiancée? Don’t be ridiculous! After four years together, he knocks her up and then immediately dumps her just weeks before their wedding.”

            “He’s not the father,” Arlo blurted, and then his eyes got wide, and he put delicate fingers to his lips. I would have giggled at the sight if the subject matter wasn’t so serious.

            I felt an electric chill throughout my entire body that somebody with Abby’s character would cheat on her fiancée. Then I felt hurt that she had apparently confided in Arlo, but not in me. Abby had only worked for me not quite two years, but I felt like we were pretty close friends.

            “So Abby told you this?”

            “Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “I met her former fiancée’s brother at her church. I think he thought Abby and I were an item. He took me aside and warned me that she was a cheater. He also said her former fiancée let everyone think he was the deadbeat to save her from disgrace. He said he also left town due to his own undeserved disgrace.”

            “I don’t believe it!” I said. “Sweet little, God fearing Abby not only cheated, but let the betrayed take the fall.”

            “Please keep this between you and me,” Arlo said. His eyes looked somewhat panicked. “I promised him I wouldn’t tell, but I let slip figuring you already knew. Trust me, I can tell by things she’s told me that she plans to set the record straight. She told me she had been backslidden for years and had things she needed to own up to. I’m betting what I just told you is part of it.”

            “I’ll keep it to myself, I promise.”

            “I hope this doesn’t make you think less of her. I believe she’s repentant. I think she’s just seeking God’s grace and working up the courage to come clean.”

            “I have my own skeletons, Arlo. What you just told me only makes me feel for her.”

            We drove separately, and out in the parking lot, grinning, he stuck out his hand to shake. I opened my arms and said, “I think we can do better than that.”

            As we broke away from the hug, I went on tip toes and made to kiss his cheek. Only I missed on purpose and kissed half of his mouth. I could tell it took him by surprise, and he made a joke of it, saying, “Mmm, strawberry.”

            Aiming wide innocent looking eyes that weren’t so innocent, I invited. “If you like the taste, have some more.”

            “Don’t mind if I do,” he replied, and lowered his face to mine.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 6

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 6

ELI

THEN GOD BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY AND SANCTIFIED IT, BECAUSE IN IT HE RESTED FROM ALL HIS WORK WHICH GOD HAD CREATED AND MADE (Genesis 2:3)

            I was about to take a drag off of my cigarette, for I still smoked in 1999, when there was a menacing laugh and a sharp flick of a finger in front of my face. Instead of my lungs filling with toxic, nicotine laced smoke, I watched my Kool filter king sail off of the back porch I was sitting on. I was at a bed and breakfast where I was now residing after one night in a hotel. The cancer stick sailed into the leafy grass below.

            “Eli, you dog!” Arlo laughed. “You told me you quit smoking.”

            Laughing and rising from my lounge chair, I hugged the only person I considered family at that juncture of my life. But I was excited to share with him about the family I hoped I was gaining.

            “I did quit,” I squeaked, because he was hugging my so tight. “But then I always seem to restart.”

            Arlo looked better than ever, tan and fit. I hadn’t seen him in months. In our band, ‘The Sons Molech,’ Arlo played bass guitar, and his stage persona was similar to the Marvel comic book character Thor. With his long blonde hair, and a physique like a bodybuilder, he played the part well.

            “I thought your flight was coming in this evening,” I told him. “I was planning on picking you up.”

            “I took an earlier flight, and I rented a car,” he explained. “I don’t want to bother you or anyone else for a ride while I’m here.”

            “I’m hoping you’ll be here for a while,” I grinned. “We need a bass player.”

            He frowned but smiled. “Let me guess, your, um, reunion with your son is going well?”

            “I don’t know that it’s called a reunion when we only met a few days ago,” I explained. “But yes, your prayers were answered. Turns out Ethan, my… son, is a singer song writer, and his wife is a very good drummer.”

            “That’s fantastic!” Arlo grinned. “I can’t wait to meet them.”

            “Hey! How about tonight? They’re throwing a birthday party, but I told them I couldn’t stay long because I was picking you up at the airport.”

            “You’re cutting out on your own birthday party for me?” He smiled sheepishly and gave my upper arm a friendly punch.

            “No, it’s for my… granddaughter.”

            “Wow, that sounds weird! Your granddaughter. And she was born on your birthday?”

            “Yep. She was born the day I turned thirty five.”

            “Man, you Alderson’s start young.”

            “Yeah, so young we don’t even know we had kids.”

            “And I suppose nobody knows it’s your birthday as well?”

            “I’ll announce it at the end of the party. I wanted this to be Crystal’s day, and not overshadowed by me.”

            “Good idea,” Arlo said, then his eyes widened. “Fire!”

            He vaulted over the deck railing and began stumping on about a five foot wide circle of burning leaves in the lawn ignited by the cigarette he flicked from my lips. I put a hand on the railing, but thought better of vaulting, and trotted down the six steps into the yard. I also thought better of dancing in the flames and grabbed a nearby watering can. The pail of water extinguished the flames quicker than Arlo’s foot maneuvers.

            “Wow, I hope Mrs. Mendelbright didn’t see this,” I said, looking up at the large Victorian house.

            “Who’s Mrs. Mendelbright?”

            “The proprietor, or landlady if you prefer.”

            Arlo laughed. “That’s a good one.”

            “What is?” I frowned.

            “Mrs. Mendelbright.”

            “What’s so funny about that? She’s a sweet little lady. I don’t want her to think I’m riff raff.”

            “You mean you’re not joking?”

            “Joking about what? We just set her lawn on fire. Actually you did.”

            “So you don’t know who Mrs. Mendelbright is?”

            “Of course I do, she owns this place.”

            “No, I mean the Mrs. Mendelbright I’m talking about,” Arlo tried to explain. “You know ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ right?”

            “Of course, but I can’t say I ever watched much of it, though.”

            “You don’t know what you’re missing, it’s a classic,” Arlo said and then frowned. “So you don’t know who Mrs. Mendelbright is then?”

            “Of course I do, she owns this place.”

            Arlo laughed. “Truth is stranger than fiction. Andy Griffith was the sheriff of this quaint little town of Mayberry. He had this squirrely deputy named Barney Fife. In this one episode, Barney got kicked out of the room he rented from a, get this, Mrs. Mendelbright. He was kicked out of his room for cooking in it against the rules. He burned his food, and she smelled it.”

            “Quick, lets cover this black circle with leaves.” I instructed after hearing his story.

            “Just think if Mrs. Mendelbright discovers this burnt circle and finds out about the band you used to be in,” Arlo laughed.

            “That’s not funny,” I replied, even though I laughed. Then in all seriousness, I said, “I think she has a room available if you want to stay here.”

            “You know, I think I will. I get along well enough with my parents, but it’s just not the same as when I was a kid.”

            “So the old saying is true, you can’t go home once you’ve left.”

            He didn’t seem to like this idea and pointed back and forth between us. “Look, we’re home, ain’t we?”

            “I lived here a little more than a year, and couldn’t wait to leave, so this is hardly my home.”

            “Then what are you doing back with seemingly no timetable to leave?”

            I frowned. “I don’t know, maybe finding a home.”

            He chuckled. “Let’s go see Mrs. Mendelbright about a room.”

            “Nice,” Arlo said as he looked around his room. “It’s like staying at a grandma’s house instead of the hotels we’re used to.”

            “Mrs. Mendelbright makes a great breakfast if you get up in time.”

            “I take it you don’t get up in time?”

            “I’ve never fully gotten away from rock star hours, but she always seems to have a huge homemade muffin available for me… I really hope she doesn’t see the burnt spot in her yard.”

            “Don’t worry about it. I told her.”

            “You what!”

            “My conscience bothered me,” Arlo shrugged. “Like I said, don’t worry, she laughed about it. She even complimented you for not smoking your cigarettes in her room.”

            “Probably laughed it off because your biceps are bigger than my thighs.”

            “I wouldn’t hurt a woman.”

            “She doesn’t know that.”

            “Actually I’m hurt by your insinuation,” Arlo said, placing gentle fingers on his chest. “I won her over with kindness and charm, not intimidation.”

            “Kindness and charm?” I chuckled. “That’s probably how the serpent beguiled Eve.”

            Arlo grinned from ear to ear. “You’ve been reading the Bible I gave you.”

            “Yeah,” I shrugged. Then sensing a sermon was forthcoming, and not in the mood, I said, “Hey, let’s get to that birthday party. Help me load up her presents.”

            “What’s in this box?” Arlo asked as he and I retrieved it out of Mrs. Mendelbright’s garage.

            “A battery powered Jeep. It’s even pink. I also got her a rocking horse. Oh, and a guitar, how could I forget that?” I laughed.

            “Kind of overkill, don’t you think?”

            “Well, I got the rocking horse before I saw the little pink jeep.”

            “How about you let me have one of them?”

            “It’s not your birthday yet. Besides, you’re too big for all of them.”

            “I meant for me to give to your granddaughter. You shouldn’t be so overindulgent.”

            “Okay, how about the rocking horse?”

            “Perfect. A rocking horse from Uncle Arlo.”

            “Great Uncle Arlo.”

            “Awe, you think I’m great?”

            “Sure I do.”

            The party was at Penny’s veterinarian clinic after hours. When I saw the kids were getting pony rides, I selfishly thought it would overshadow my jeep. But I was wrong, she loved it! She was so excited, it also got her past her shyness around me. She actually hugged me and kissed my cheek. For the first time I felt overwhelmed by feelings of love.

            I couldn’t stop a tear from leaking. So this wonderful feeling turned into mortification as two dozen pairs of eyes watched the former macho rockstar Eli Endor weep over the affection of a little girl. But Ariel quickly approached me, wiping her own tear, hugged me, and whispered. “Don’t be embarrassed. That was one of the sweetest things I ever saw.”

            On a different note, I unwittingly witnessed the beginnings of what would turn out to be a complicated love triangle. I immediately noticed a chemistry between Penny and Arlo when they were… would it be introduced or reintroduced? I’ll go with reintroduced, because of the first words out of Arlo’s grinning mouth as they shook hands were, “Gone for a swim lately?”

            I noticed Penny’s lips purse, not in anger, but suppressing her own grin in reference to his throwing her into a lake more than two decades ago. Then she shot back with her own jab. “Taken any steroids lately?”

            “That’s below the belt, young lady, I’ve worked hard for these guns. I’ll admit that I’ve ingested some unhealthy chemicals in my time, but never for artificial muscle growth.”

            “His physique looks pretty natural to me, Pen,” One of Abby’s vet assistants piped up, and then blushed.

            She was a handsome redhead with pretty green eyes. Abby, like her boss Penny, appeared to be a tomboy. I initially wondered if she and Penny were more than coworkers. But I discovered that day by the way she looked at Arlo, that Abby was definitely into dudes. They also had something unique in common.

            “I noticed your cap says, ‘Amazing Facts’,” Abby said to Arlo, referring to the baseball cap he was wearing backwards that advertised his favorite Christian ministry. His blonde ponytail hung behind the bill. “Are you a Sabbatarian?”

            “Yes I am,” Arlo said happily.

            “Me too,” she responded with delight.

            They began a conversation, and I witnessed Penny giving them sideways glances. After their discussion ended, I asked Arlo what a Sabbatarian was.

            “It’s someone who keeps the Biblical Sabbath,” Arlo replied.

            “All Christians go to church on Sunday, so what’s the big deal?”

            “Most, not all. The Biblical Sabbath is actually the seventh day of the week, not the first.”

            “How do you know that?”

            “Cause the Bible tells me so. Starting with Creation in the book of Genesis. God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a permanent memorial of Creation. It’s also part of the Ten Commandments, the one part of the Bible that God personally wrote.”

            “Well, why do most Christians keep Sunday?”

            “Sunday keeping really took off when Constantine made Christianity a legal religion in the fourth century. When he did, pagan beliefs became merged with Christian beliefs. This led to the dark ages. I’m sure you’ve heard that?”

            “I have, but I don’t know exactly what it is.”

            “It was a period of over more than a thousand years where Christians were persecuted if they didn’t follow the Papacy. The dark ages officially ended 1798 when Napolean’s General Berthier basically arrested the Pope.”

            “Are you really Arlo Aldo, bass player for ‘The Sons of Molech’?

            “Not anymore, old buddy. By the way…”

            “Guys, come get some birthday cake,” Ariel’s voice invited.

            “We’ll talk more later,” Arlo said.

            As I mingled, chatted, and took bites of cake, I heard playful banter between Penny and Arlo. But some of it being playful is questionable. This is the last bit I heard before a big splash.                               Penny asked Arlo, “How come you don’t have any tattoos, but your old bandmates were covered in them? Are you afraid of needles or something?”

            I wasn’t covered with tattoos, but my left arm was pretty much sleaved with various wild animals, skulls, and guitars. Izzy and Kyle on the other hand were almost entirely covered with ink. Izzy even had one on his face.

            “You don’t put bumper stickers on a Lamborghini,” Arlo said happily.

            “But what if it isn’t a real Lamborghini, but kit car?” Penny asked with wide, innocent eyes.

            “That’s it!” Arlo declared as he scooped up Penny in his arms and marched to a pond.

            She squealed and laughed, but as Arlo was about to toss her into the pond, Abby came up behind him and tickled his ribs. He jerked, convulsed, and dropped Penny. Then the two women working in tandem, shoved Arlo into the pond causing a big splash.

            He took it in good humor until I told him. “I don’t know how you’re getting back to the B and B. Because you’re not getting into my car looking like a swamp rat.”

            Penny gave him a ride home. It was warm for late October, and they sat on that back deck where Arlo tended to start fires. They talked for two and a half hours, and a different type of fire was started.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 5

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 5

PENNY

I SPEAK IN HUMAN TERMS BECAUSE OF THE WEAKNESS OF YOUR FLESH. FOR JUST AS YOU PRESENTED YOUR MEMBERS AS SLAVES OF UNCLEANNESS, AND OF LAWLESSNESS LEADING TO MORE LAWLESSNESS, SO NOW PRESENT YOUR MEMBERS AS SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HOLINESS (Romans 6:19 NKJV)

            I’m sure I was more nervous than both father and son as they met for the first time. It was forefront in my mind that I was the one responsible for this encounter. Whether it went well, or if it turned into a dumpster fire, it was my letter that I sent to Eli several weeks ago that ultimately caused this meeting. This weighed heavily on my mind.

            This period of my life found my walk with the Lord weak, and my faith feeble. Nonetheless, as I watched Ethan and Eli lock eyes for the first time in my sister’s living room, my lips silently pleaded. “Please, oh please, Dear Lord, let this go well.”

            Eli appeared to be cool as a cucumber. What an odd phrase. What’s so cool about a cucumber? Anyhow, he smiled that smooth smirk of his and extended his hand to his son. “Ethan, it’s very nice to meet you.”

            Ethan just stared at him as if in awe. I silently muttered, “Take his hand, Ethan, don’t blow him off. Please don’t blow him off.”

            Eli cleared his throat and slowly withdrew his hand. Then Ethan grabbed it and chuckled nervously. “Sorry… It’s just… I’ve wanted to meet you ever since I found out you were… You know.”

            “Yeah,” Eli replied a little breathless. “I came as soon as I realized the possibility.”

            “I wrote to you six years ago,” Ethan told him matter of fact.

            “I didn’t see it,” Eli replied quickly. “Or if I did, I figured it wasn’t legit.”

            “What made you think Aunt Penny’s letter was legit?”

            Eli looked at me and a wave of anxiety flowed through me that I felt through my whole body.

            “Well, this may be TMI,” Eli said with an uneasy smile. Then he proceeded to explain about getting a vasectomy when he was only twenty years old. He explained about numerous accusations of fatherhood over the years that he laughed off. But my phrase ‘A Penny for your thoughts’ had caught his eye. He saw the one possibility with my letter that he could in fact have fathered a child.

            “So,” Ethan said hesitantly. “You traveled all this way just to meet me?”

            “I did.”

            “The man who took your place wouldn’t walk across the street to see me,” Ethan said bitterly. This statement caused Ariel to take her eyes off her son and his biological father for the first time. She looked at her feet as if in shame. But she was between a rock and hard place. She already had two daughters with her first husband before he started treating Ethan like dirt.

            “I’m sorry about that.”

            “It’s not your fault,” Ethan shrugged. They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Eli looked past him and asked, “Who are these lovely young ladies?”

            “Oh, this is my wife, Amy,” Ethan introduced. “And this sweet little girl hugging her leg is our daughter Crystal.”

            “Nice to meet you, Amy,” Eli said, shaking her hand.

            “Likewise,” Amy replied with a smile. “Crys, can you say ‘hi’ to Daddy’s… I… don’t know what I should, you know, refer to you as.”

            “Eli’s always worked just fine,” he told her with a warm smile. Then he went to one knee and offered his hand to Crystal. “Hi there, Crystal. You sure have a pretty name.”

            She ignored his hand and shyly buried her face into her mother’s thigh for a few seconds. Then she pointed at Eli and said, “He looks like Daddy… Only old.”

            Everyone laughed at this. Then Ethan crouched by Eli but spoke to his daughter. “You know Great Grandpa Frank, Sweety? Eli is his son.”

            Eli’s head turned so fast to face Ethan I was concerned he’d get whiplash. “You know my father?”

            “After I found out you were my bio dad, I looked him up. We sort of developed a relationship. I try to see him every couple weeks.”

            “Why wouldn’t he have told me I have a son?” Eli said with a frown.

            “He said he tried to contact you, but you never returned his calls.”

            “Has it been more than six years since I talked to him?” Eli said to himself.

            “Seven,” Ethan told him. “He’s told me that you two don’t get along very well, and that’s why you’ve never gotten back to him.”

            “I’ve traveled a lot,” Eli tried to explain. “Time sure can get away from a person.”

            “There’s something else you should probably know,” Ethan said. “Since I hit off with, well, my grandpa, your dad, I had my name legally changed from Smothers to Alderson when I turned eighteen. I hope that’s alright with you.”

            “Of course, of course,” Eli replied happily. Then seeming somewhat jealous, he asked, “So you and Frank get along pretty well, huh?”

            “Yeah,” Ethan nodded happily. “He cried when I asked him if I could change my name to Alderson… I mean happy tears, he was touched.”

            “He cried? I’ll be dogged. I didn’t know he had tear ducts. I should probably go see him.”

            “He’d like that.”

            “He would?”

            “I guarantee it.”

            “He was pretty angry and disappointed with my occupation. I even tried to win his approval by paying off his house. But he said he wouldn’t take a dime from a sick devil worshiper.”

            “Can I ask you question?” Amy asked Eli.

            “Sure, ask me anything you want.”

            She winced and asked quietly. “Are you a really Satanist?”

            “No,” Eli replied, adamantly shaking his head. “But the leader of the band I was in for a lot of years was. So for a time, I guess you could say I dabbled on the fringes by association.”

            “That’s a dangerous thing to dabble with,” Ariel pipped up.

            “Trust me, I know,” Eli admitted. “I’ve had night terrors to prove it. You really do have to be careful who your friends are.”

            “Can I ask you something?” Ethan said.

            “Absolutely.”

            “If you got a vasectomy when you were only twenty, you must have been pretty adamant about not wanting children. So why are you interested in me?”

            “I was dead set on being a musician, on traveling the world. I didn’t want the obligation of children, and I knew I wouldn’t be a good father… As for my interest in you, time has a way of changing people. A twenty year old doesn’t make the wisest life choices. I don’t know if my procedure was even legal. It was something I wanted done, and our band’s manager greased palms, so to speak.”

            “So if you had to do over?”

            “I’ve never been much of a rearview mirror guy The past is past, ain’t nothing you can do about it. I view life like a chalk board. You mess up, erase it and move on with a fresh start.”

            “In my belief system as a Christian,” Ethan said. “We call it repentance.”

            Then seeming to want to change the subject, Eli said, “I understand you play guitar.”

            “Yeah I do. I’m okay, I guess, not like you though.”

            “He’s fantastic singer,” Ethan’s wife Amy spoke up.

            “And he writes songs about God, love, and sacrificial living,” Ariel piped in.

            “Yeah, you write songs?” Eli asked enthusiastically.

            “Mostly about God, love, and sacrificial living,” his mother repeated.

            “I heard you the first time, Ariel,” Eli said patiently, although his jaw seemed to clench. “And I’m glad. I wouldn’t want anyone to follow the dark path I took.”

            “So you do regret it?” Ariel asked.

            “Like I said before, I’m not a rearview mirror guy.”

            “Why would you be?” I blurted. “You became rich selling Satanism.”

            His eyes winced when he glanced at me. But it was a look of pain rather than anger or defiance. Then he spread his hands in defeat. “I’d like to tell you I’d do things different, but I can’t time travel. Hindsight’s always clearer than foresight, right? There’s nothing I can do about it now.”

            “Yes there is,” Ariel practically barked. “You can publicly repent and accept Christ.”

            “I’m not beyond that Ariel,” Eli told her. “Just so you know, I asked Arlo to pray for me before I came to this meeting.”

            “Really?” my sister said meekly. Then she got demanding again. “Well, you could also help our son get his songs exposed.”

            “Mom! Aunt Penny!” Ethan ordered. “Give the man a break. I just met him fifteen minutes ago!”

            “It’s okay, Ethan,” Eli said gently. “I’d be glad to do whatever I can to help you. I’d really like to hear you sing and play, if you wouldn’t mind.”

            “I’ll get his guitar out of the car,” Amy said.

            A couple minutes later, Eli and Ethan sat across from each other. Eli looked eagerly at his son. But I could see a nervous tremor in Ethans hands, and I felt my toes curl. He handed the guitar over to Eli and look of surprise came onto the rock star’s face. “Would you play something first?”

            “What should I play?” Eli asked hesitantly.

            “Just don’t play something from your band days,” Ariel said.

            “Band Aid?” I inquired, wondering what the little strips for minor injuries had to do with this.

            “Band days,” Ariel said slowly. Big sister putting little sister in her place.

            Eli strummed the instrument, making sure it was in tune. Then he launched into a fast  Spanish flamingo style of play that made all of our jaws drop open.

            I recalled more than two decades earlier Eli was in the high school jazz band. At a school assembly, they performed, and Eli had a solo that was anything but jazz. He played, arguably, the most famous hard rock guitar solo of all time, Van Halen’s ‘Eruption.’

            He played it flawlessly. You would have thought Eddie Van Halen himself was there  playing it. The whole assembly of between three and four hundred students became silent. Not that you could hear much else with the riffs coming out of the amplifier. As the last notes reverberated through the auditorium, a collective roar of cheers drowned out the fading guitar, and Eli Alderson became a school legend.

            But he was also a polarizing figure in some ways. Mothers, including our own, didn’t want their daughters associating with this good looking, wild, long haired rocker. As for the guys, some thought he was the coolest thing ever and wanted to hang out with him. While others were jealous and wanted to beat him to a pulp.

            Eli would once again become a polarizing figure in town these twenty some years later. Only this time it was centered in the church community as he worked on music with Ethan and what was known as the ‘Praise Team’ at my family’s church.

            Then fuel was added to the fire when Eli’s former bandmate, and former Cedar Rapids resident, Arlo Aldo showed up. He had a six foot, ridiculously muscled frame, capped off with long blonde hair and dreamy blue eyes. Although now a devout Christian, he brought added controversy. He also brought turmoil to my personal life.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 2

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 2

Eli

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

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

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

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

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

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

            “What?” I replied.

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

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

            “Are you hungry?”

            “Sure.”

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

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

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

            Then she said to me, “And associate.”

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

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

            “What’s wrong?”

            “Bringing you here.”

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

            “You’re anything but normal.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?”

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

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

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

            “Because I’m what?”

            “Never mind.”

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

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

            “But not now?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            “No, I mean, not necessarily.”

            “Well what then?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            “Why?”

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

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

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

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

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

            “Yes, and you can call him Ethan.”

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

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

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

            Penny nodded.

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

            “One and the same.”

            “And she had kids with him?”

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

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

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

            “So what happened in this altercation?”

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

            “Let me guess, Dan was drunk.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            “Is that all?”

            “Yes, that’s all.”

            “You don’t believe in God?”

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

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

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

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

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

            “Yes, I do.”

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

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

            “So what’s holding you back?”

            “It’s complicated.”

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

            “So you’re still a Christian then?”

            “I’m agnostic.”

            “But you grew up in a religious household.”

            “So did you.”

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

            “What happened to your mom?”

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

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

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

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