Tag: love

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 6

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 6

LIEUTENANT LOUIS LEWIS

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

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

            “Maybe,” she replied with another shrug.

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

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

            “What are you talking about?”

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

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

            “Or lack thereof,” Inga interrupted.

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

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

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

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

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

            “Absolutely not!”

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

            “Okay, tell me about this former fiancée.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            “I did.”

            “Okay. The gentleman part confused me.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            “Really?” Seven asked with an arched eyebrow.

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

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

            “What does that mean?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            “How long did you live on this compound?”

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

            “Is your mom still there?”

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

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

            “Nope.”

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

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

            “What about your father?”

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

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

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

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

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

            “Who’s Brent?”

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

            “Do you know his whereabouts?”

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

            “Were you and your brother ever close?”

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

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

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

            “You mean contacting aliens.”

            “Yeah, something like that.”

            “How old is Bryson?”

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

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

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

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

            “Hey Jeff, what’s up?”

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

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 19

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 19

NANCY

  THE ANGEL OF THE LORD ENCAMPS ALL AROUND THOSE WHO FEAR HIM, AND DELIVERS THEM (Psalm 34:7)

             “Dad?” Drew had petitioned. My fiancée had his phone on speaker and had just told his father that his former bandmate, Donald Reed, was my biological father.

            Donald Reed was more known by his stage name Izzy Iscariot. He had been a hardcore satanist, whereas Arlo, Drew’s dad, had been, shall we say, a nominal occultist. Then Arlo left the band he shared with Izzy when he became a devout Christian. Not long after, Izzy had committed suicide in a very violent manner.

            Apparently the news rendered Mr. Aldo speechless as Drew tried a second time. “Dad?”

            “Oh, yeah, son, I… I’m sorry,” he finally stammered. “This just takes me by complete surprise.”

            “Yeah, I can imagine,” Drew replied. “Maybe I should have waited to tell you in person.”

            “No, no, that’s fine… But are you sure? How did you find this out?”

            Drew told him about how my mom was actually my biological aunt. He explained the connection between my mom’s family, their occult ties and Izzy.

            There was a long enough silence that it prompted Drew to say “Dad?” again.

            “Yeah, Son… Maybe you should reconsider marrying Nancy.”

            I felt my face flush as Drew looked at me with a stunned expression. I loved Arlo Aldo, and I thought he loved or at least liked me. So his suggestion to his son hurt and I felt tears sting the back of my eyes. But I clenched my jaw and pushed them back.

            “Dad, I love her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She’s a child of God and her own person, no matter parentage.”

            Yet again Drew was a balm to my tortured soul. I loved him more than anyone in the whole world and desperately wanted to spend the rest of my life with him as well. So his father’s words were very much a threat to my insecure psyche.

            “I understand that, but you see… What you just told about her parentage. It’s, I don’t know, all wrong.”

            “Dad, I’ve been on speaker, so Nancy is hearing all of this.”

            Silence again. But before Drew could say Dad, I meekly cut in. “Hi, Arlo.”

            “Nancy, hi. Listen, I didn’t mean anything personal. It’s just that there are things you don’t understand.”

            “You mean about me originating from demons?” I replied cooly.

            “No, no, no!” he responded. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

            “Then why do parents I never even knew make me unworthy of your son?”

            “It’s not that. It’s complicated. You see, before Izzy offed himself, he wrote several people letters, me included. Actually they were notes cuz Izzy was too deranged for a proper letter. Anyhow, he threatened to, um, have me haunted me in a particular manner.”

            “Oh come on, Dad, you can’t be serious! You know what the Bible teaches about the state of the dead.”

            “Yeah, yeah, of course, the dead don’t know anything (Ecclesiastes 9:5). Notice I said have me haunted. In other words curse me with the demonic.”

            “Dad, you also know God is bigger and stronger than the devil.”

            “Yes of course, but I can’t escape the ramifications of what I was involved with. You don’t come away from years of dabbling in the occult unscathed. Jesus Himself referred to Satan as the ruler of this world.” (John 12:31)

            “Yeah and He also said, ‘If I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.’ (verse 32) Of which you are a part.”

            “Jesus also said we would have tribulation.”

            “Yes, but what did He say before and after?” I began to clarify. “Before what you quoted, He said, ‘In Me you may have peace.’ After, He said, ‘Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’” (John 16:33)

            “You’re missing the point. Even though we are Christians, we shouldn’t test fate. The devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. (1 Peter 5:9) Look, I don’t do certain things regarding, say, lust or drugs, so I won’t be tempted. I also should heed the warning of a curse Izzy promised to put on me and my family.”

            “A curse? You’ve got to be kidding! What exactly did this lunatic write that has you so bent out of shape, so unreasonable?”

            “I don’t know verbatim; I haven’t looked at it in years.”

            “You mean you still have it? You saved a, um, suicide note?”

            “I did.”

            “Why? What for?”

            “For a reminder of what God rescued me from. Also for a possible time like this.”

            “I don’t understand, Dad. What could he have possibly threatened you with that has you freaked out about me marrying Nancy?”

            “You just told me she’s his daughter.”

            “Biologically. But he apparently didn’t even know he was gonna be a parent. He died a half year before Nancy was even born. Shoot, the woman that birthed her didn’t even raise her. So how dare you accuse her of bringing a curse to our family.”

            “It won’t bring a curse if you don’t marry her. I’m sorry, Nancy. I love you like you have been part of the family. But some things just aren’t meant to be, like if you would have found out you were siblings separated at birth. You certainly wouldn’t marry then.”

            “I don’t mean any disrespect, my father,” Drew told him calmly. “But you are being superstitious and ridiculous.”

            “Am I? Do we or do we not wrestle against principalities, powers and the rulers of darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places?”

            “Once again you are leaving off the before and after. By that I mean the putting on of the whole armor of God. (Ephesians chapter 6) So tell me what Izzy said that has you this rattled.”

            Arlo sighed heavily from more that fifteen hundred miles away. “Izzy wrote a half dozen notes to people he thought betrayed him. Most of his message to me was crazy rambling. But he ended it by telling me that I sold my soul as much as he did, and you don’t get to just leave the band, just like the mafia. He said I was breaking up his family, so he was gonna infiltrate mine and curse it. The very last thing he said was, we mingled our blood and seed, now my sacrificed blood will mingle with your lineage unto the third and fourth generation. Then he signed his name in blood.”

            “What did he mean by you mingled your blood and seed?” Drew asked.

            “You don’t want to know.”

            “Of course I do, that’s why I asked.”

            “Haven’t I told my children that I didn’t want them researching my time in ‘The Sons of Molech? The person I was then is dead, just in a different way than Izzy.”

            “And I’ve honored that request. But now you’re telling me that something about your time in that situation has rendered the woman I love unworthy to marry.”

            “When I partook in the ritual to sell my soul for rock and roll, we drank a strange concoction. It contained three ingredients mixed in a large chalice.  The base was liquor, but the other two ingredients came from our bodies. We each submitted a vial of blood and…”

            “Okay, I get what was in it.”

            “You wanted to know,” Arlo said with more hostility than I had ever heard from the man.

            “I had no choice… So you guys drank each other’s…”

            “Eli and I were nineteen. Izzy and our drummer Kyle had already had a taste of success in the rock scene. Eli and I were young and dumb and on our own in LA. We were willing to do whatever it took to achieve fame and fortune.”

            “Okay, I don’t need to know any more about that aspect,” Drew said and looked me right in the eyes as he continued speaking with his father. “But I still don’t find that reason enough, at all, to call off our marriage. As a matter of fact, after we get back, I hope Nancy will agree to marry me as soon as Pastor Samson will perform the ceremony.”

            I was confused, distraught, and unable to hold Drew’s gaze any longer. I looked at my feet.

            “I don’t believe in coincidences,” Drew’s dad said forcefully. “What are the odds that you and Nancy just happened to become friends? Then romantic? Then to find out she shares fifty percent of her DNA with a deranged satanist who warned that he was gonna mingle his blood and seed with mine. I have the written documentation to prove it.”

            “Documentation?”

            “Hey, he may have been an out of control nut job in the end, but he took his demonism seriously.”

            “So what exactly do you think is gonna happen?” Drew asked incredulously. “You seem to be putting more faith in Izzy cursing you, or us, or whatever, rather than trusting God.”

            “No, it’s not that at all. Let me be frank for a minute.”

            “You mean other than Dad or Arlo?”

            “Under normal circumstances I would find that funny. However, to be frank, I don’t like the idea of Izzy and I having both of our DNA existing in the same grandchild.”

            Rather than tell his dad I likely couldn’t bear children, Drew simply replied, “Look, if we ever have a boy I promise we won’t name him Damien.”

            “That’s not funny.”

            “I’m not trying to be. Forgive me but this whole conversation has seemed ludicrous.”

            “I know it has. But on the other hand we live in a strange, fallen world.”

            “Look, here’s the way I see it, Dad. The flesh profits nothing, it’s the Spirit that counts. As in the Holy Spirit. You look at Nancy and my lives converging as a bad omen. The way I see it, her mother came to Iowa as an answer to prayer. And that answer to prayer was seeing you and Uncle Eli on the cover of a Christian magazine. She read how you and Eli repented of your lives in ‘The Sons of Molech,’ and were both living for God and family in the heartland, and she moved there herself in hopes her daughter could find healing from extreme abuse. That causes me to trust in light rather than fear darkness.”

            “I respect that, Son, I truly do. But I’ve also tried my best to protect my family from the dangerous dark stuff I was involved with for many years. God saved me and blessed me, and I’m very thankful for that. But there has also been an element that has haunted me all these years. With all that you have just informed me, I feel like the walls of protection I have constructed with God’s help through the years are collapsing in on me with this news.”

            “I’m sorry you feel that way, Dad.”

            “Please tell me you’ll consider my warning.”

            “With all due respect, I don’t need to consider. I love Nancy, I trust God, and I’m not superstitious. For me, she’s a gift from God, not an obstacle from Satan like you seem to think.”

            Arlo sighed heavily. “Look, we’ll talk when you get home. This conversation is not going anywhere.”

            “I want to see Izzy’s letter or note or whatever it is.”

            Pause. “Fair enough.”

            Drew and his father exchanged goodbyes. Then Drew took my hand. “Sorry about all that.”

            I shrugged, looked away from him for a few seconds, then back and asked, “How come you left that call on speaker?”

            “You want the truth, right?”

            I nodded. “But it hurts. I don’t get why Arlo is blaming me.”

            “He’s not blaming you.”

            “How can you say that when he was practically insisting that you don’t marry me?”

            “I don’t know what to tell you. He has always appeared to me to be such a man of faith. It completely took me by surprise to hear him react so irrationally. But I also thought his time in the occult was behind him. It never occurred to me that he felt haunted.”

            “His reaction surprised me too.”

            “Please don’t take it personally.”

            “It’s hard not to.”

            “I know. But his problem ultimately is with Izzy.”

            “I didn’t choose who my parents were.”

            He smiled warmly and said, “But Phebe chose you.”

            “Yes, she did!” I replied. Then several sobs burst forth. Drew hugged me tight, but I felt so tired and weak I could barely get my hands onto his shoulders.

            When I calmed and we separated, he said, “Despite my Dad’s bizarre reaction to Izzy being, you know… We will still get married as soon as possible.”

            “No,” I replied shaking my head vigorously.

            The smile left Drew’s face. “Why not? Don’t tell me you agree with his reasoning.”

            “It’s not that. I don’t want to get married without both of your parents’ blessings.”

            Drew began to chew on his lower lip as he looked away from me. I knew what he was thinking. His mother was repulsed by Izzy every bit as much as his father.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 18

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 18

DREW

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

          “Mom,” my beautiful bride began meekly. But then she paused, and I feared she was battling hostility. She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.

          “What is it, Sweety?” Phebe asked with concern.

          “Are you actually my aunt?” Nancy blurted.

          Phebe’s face looked stunned. Then it morphed into sadness. Then she took a deep breath herself and blew it out slowly before saying, “Yes.”

          Nancy’s demeanor became calm and business like, which I suppose was better than out right anger. “So how come you never told me?”

          Phebe was clearly rattled as she nervously twisted a napkin in her fingers. “I was always torn with what to do. The time to tell you never seemed quite right. Also, there was this side where I felt it was better to leave sleeping dogs lay. There was also the aspect that I raised you more than your biological mother did, and I mean even here in California before all the bad stuff came to light.”

          “So where is she?” Nancy wanted to know.

          “After everything went down with the creep she was married to. How he was abusing you and others. She died of a heroin overdose the day after he was arrested.”

          “Suicide.”

          “Who knows?”

          “I also have reason to believe the creep wasn’t my biological father,” Nancy told her.

          Phebe shook her head. “No he’s not, regardless of what your birth certificate states.”

          “So you knew? That also would have been nice to know. Do you know what it was like believing half of my DNA was from him all these years?”

          Tears began to leak from Phebe’s eyes. “I’m truly sorry. It was such a difficult time, especially before it was found out that the creep was making that vile filth. He and your mom divorced, and they had joint custody. That’s how he was able to use you in…”

          “Did you know?”

          “No, Honey, you know I didn’t.”

          “Well, you let me think you were my birth mother all these years.”

          “All I knew was that there was something off about the man. I swear to God that I didn’t know he was making porn until that brave boy jumped through the window.”

          “He’s how I found out the truth.”

          Phebe nodded. “I figured. He came to talk to me some time ago.”

          “And you still didn’t tell me, knowing he knew your secret?”

          “What can I say? I’m a procrastinator, and after all this time, I didn’t know how to go about it.”

          “I don’t even know my real mom’s name,” Nancy said testily.

          Phebe hung her head, and her lower lip quivered. “It’s Phoenix.”

          “My real mom’s name is Phoenix?”

          Phebe was unable to lift her eyes, and my heart broke for her. I gently said, “Nancy.”

          “What?” She snapped, as her fiery gaze shifted to me.

          I don’t know what she saw in my face, but hers softened.  And I said, “The flesh profits nothing, it’s the spirit that counts… Phebe is your real mom.”

          A look of wonder came into my fiancée’s face. Then she quickly moved in front of her mother and knelt. Hugging her she said, “Oh, Mom, I’m sorry! Drew is right, you are my real mom, and I love you so much. I just want the truth.”

          “I love you too, Honey, more than anything in the world.”

          “Yes I know. You proved that by moving me halfway across the country. But I do wish you would have told me about our family situation.”

          After the two women hugged for a minute, Phebe said, “You were traumatized, Honey. Your first therapist suggested I let you believe that I was your mother. It wasn’t hard because when Phoenix had her turn with the joint custody, it was usually me looking after you. And she and I looked identical, so you probably didn’t know the difference.”

          “Where is… where are her remains?” Nancy asked.

          “She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered in the ocean.”

          “Who are your parents?”

          “You don’t want to know.”

          “Yes I do. I’m an adult now, I want to know my roots.”

          “Your roots have been severed. Like Drew said, the flesh profits nothing.”

          “Why don’t you want me to know about my grandparents?”

          “Because I ultimately hold them responsible for what happened to you, and what happened to my sister.”

          “I don’t understand.”

          “Long story short, my parents were heavily involved in the occult. I shunned their belief system, while Phoenix embraced it. Because of my sister’s involvement in satanism, she became associated with the creep that abused you. She also became strung out on drugs, so much so, she neglected her own daughter.”

          “Where are your parents?” Nancy asked.

          “My father is dead, and, the last I knew, my mother lives in Santa Monica.”

          “I assume you don’t associate with her.”

          “Your assumption is correct.”

          “When did your dad die?”

          “Almost two years ago.”

          “Yet you apparently never let on, because I had no idea.”

          Phebe shrugged. “He was already dead to me.”

          “When was the last time you spoke to your mother?”

          “When my dad died. Mom wanted me to come to his funeral. I refused, and she was angry.”

          “So if the creep isn’t my dad, who is?”

          Phebe looked at me, and then back to her daughter. “This is also another aspect I never knew how to explain. I know you think I moved to Iowa because of my friend Grace. Which it was truly a part of why I went there. But I went there because of Drew’s dad, and his friend Eli.”

          “Huh?” Nancy frowned. “How did you know Drew’s dad?”

          “I didn’t.”

          “I’m not following.”

          “Well, after everything went down with the boy jumping out of the window, I felt the need to take you far away from the situation. I didn’t know where to go. I saw Drew’s dad and his friend and bandmate Eli on the cover of a Christian magazine. I knew they had been in the satanic band ‘Son’s of Molech.’

          “I read the article, about how they had turned their lives around, became Christians, and formed a Christian band along with Eli’s son and his son’s wife. The article mentioned they  resided in eastern Iowa after living in California for most of their adult lives. They said Iowa brought them a fresh start, that it was where the two friends met as teenagers. I felt like it was a sign for you to get a fresh start there as well.”

          Nancy looked stunned but managed to say, “Well, you must have been amazed when I became friends with Arlo’s son.”

          “Indeed I was.”

          “Yet you didn’t tell me the connection.”

          “Honey, like I said…”

          “That’s so weird,” Nancy said with a deep frown. “You moved halfway across the country because of two guys on a magazine cover. Two guys you didn’t even know.”

          “Well, I didn’t know them, but you see, they knew your father.”

          “Okay, now that’s the million dollar question. Please tell me who the sperm donor was.”

          “He was a man named Donald Reed.”

          I felt my toes curl, my body tense, and my mouth drop open. Nancy did a double take when she saw my reaction. “Drew, do you know this Donald Reed?”

          “I know of him,” I told my bride to be. “He was bandmates with my dad and Uncle Eli in “The Sons of Molech’. He was the singer but went by the stage name Izzy Iscariot.”

          Nancy’s expression was one of bewilderment. But she asked, “Was he the one that got really drunk and choked to death on his own vomit, or the one that killed himself in a very violent manner?”

          I cleared my throat. “The latter.”

          “I was so glad to find out that I didn’t share DNA with the creep that abused me,” Nancy replied numbly. “But I don’t know that this Izzy character is a very big step up.”

          “I don’t know what to tell you,” I told her. “I don’t know much about him myself. Both my dad and Eli never wanted to go into detail about their former band after God helped them turn their lives around. They just warned about the dangers of the occult. My dad even insisted that Jerry and I never look into his old band.”

          “So your dad won’t tell me about him?”

          “I don’t know,” I shrugged.

          “What do you know about him?” she asked Phebe.

          “Not much, I only met him twice, and that was enough. He was like a feral animal.”

          “If my dad won’t tell you, maybe Jerry can tell you something,” I said.

          “I thought you said Arlo told you guys to stay away from learning about the band.”

          “I obeyed; Jerry didn’t.”

          What would my dad think? I had to call him and find out.

          “Hey, how is it out west?” my dad greeted cheerily.

          After very brief small talk, I told him. “So Nancy found out who her biological parents are. It just so happens you know her father.”

          “I do?” he chuckled. “Small world.”

          “Very small!”

          “Yeah? Well who is it?”

          “Donald Reed.”

          Silence.

          “Dad?”

          Silence.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 17

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 17

NANCY

STAND FAST THEREFORE IN THE LIBERTY BY WHICH CHRIST HAS MADE US FREE, AND DO NOT BE ENTANGLED AGAIN WITH A YOKE OF BONDAGE    (Galatians 5:1)

          As Nancy gazed out of the airplane window, she reminded me of the girl I saw for the first time more than a decade ago on the playground. Her demeanor was both defiant as in ‘don’t mess with me,’ coupled with sad and lonely.

          I had a hard time concentrating on the book I was reading since I kept stealing glances at her out of the corner of my eye. During one such peak her head snapped in my direction, and my eyes flipped quickly back to my book.

          I felt her fingers on my chin, then she gently turned my head to look at her. She was grinning as she said, “Always keeping a watchful eye on me, huh Drew?”

          “Whatever do you mean?” I replied innocently.

          “I mean, you’ve always been there for me, even when I wasn’t there for you,” she told me as her eyes welled.

          “You’ve always been there for me as well.”

          She snorted. “Hardly. I’m sure you recall our three year hiatus, instigated by me.”

          “We were kids, foolish teenagers that needed time to grow.”

          She laughed, and for the first time since she was told her mother was actually her aunt, she looked somewhat happy. “Have you forgotten that we’re still teenagers?”

          “Maybe so, but we’re much closer to twenty than twelve.”

          “Maturity wise, you’re more like forty,” she said, and then looked at the book in my hand. “Make that more like sixty. How many teenagers have a physical book in their hands on a flight, rather than a phone?”

          “Hey, stop aging me,” I joked. “You’ll have me over a hundred by the time I really am forty.”

          “Just think how wise you’ll be, though.”

          “Well, okay, as long as I don’t have a hundred year old body when I’m forty.”

          She looked at me fondly, but behind her eyes was that unbearable sadness again. “Those three years without you in my life were so empty.”

          “There was a huge void for me as well.”

          She looked at me with a baffled expression. “I completely understand why I love you. What I don’t understand is why love me. I tend to be moody and witchy, I have hard time being girly, I come from an incredibly dysfunctional family. So you’re, like, too good to be true.”

          “Well, let me address these one at a time,” I told her. “When you go through a spell of darkness, your light shines all the brighter when you come through the other side. As for not being girly, I like that you’re not. It makes your natural femininity all the more beautiful to me. And obviously you have had a dismal childhood, whereas mine was very blessed. So I want more than anything to bring you into that fold by making you my wife. But first we have to repair the breach you feel with the only family you currently have.”

          “I don’t know how I could make this trip without you by my side. Even with you, I don’t know how to confront who I thought was my mom about her actually being my aunt.”

          “Are you that angry with her that you view our trip to California as a confrontation?”

          “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m just… confused.”

          “How do you feel about her?”

          She smiled wryly at me. Then she said softly, “You really get me.”

          “Do I?” I asked with a shrug.

          “You’ve always known when to leave me be, and you’ve always known when to talk.”

          “Are you avoiding my question?”

          Her mood swung back to seeming happy as she laughed. “See, you even knew I was avoiding the question.”

          “Are you gonna answer it?” I asked gently.

          She looked away from me and her expression turned pensive. After a minute she looked at me and spoke with a bit of hostility. “I’m angry that she lied to me all these years. It was bad enough I endured, you know… Then the rest of my childhood, I grew up believing my mom was my mom, when in reality she was my aunt. It rattles my faith in everything.”

          “Including your new relationship with Christ?”

          She nodded. “Can you blame me?”

          “No, but it’s not surprising.”

          “Why is that?”

          “You remember that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents?” (Luke 15:7)

          “Yes, of course.”

          “Well, on the other hand there is anger in the demonic realm. Jesus warned us that in this world we would have tribulation, or trouble. (John 16:33) Then he told us what?”

          “Be of good cheer I have overcome the world,” Nancy finished with anything but cheer, her arms folded, her gaze at the back of the seat in front of her. Then she turned to me and said a bit testily, “Well, then you tell me what I should think and feel about Phebe.”

          I had never heard her call her mother/aunt by her first name before. So I cautiously replied, “I’m sure she had her reasons.”

          Nancy snorted and turned her gaze back to the back of the seat in front of her.

          “Here’s what I do know. Your mom…”

          “She’s my aunt,” she interrupted stubbornly.

          “No, she’s your mother,” I relied with equal stubbornness.

          “If she was truly my mother, I would have known she had a twin sister. It seems I know nothing about my family, and Phebe would never answer my questions about her parents or any other relatives. She would just tell me it was best I didn’t know, or you don’t want to know. So that’s why I don’t feel optimistic about this trip. I don’t know who she is.”

          “She’s the woman who raised you.”

          “Under a huge lie.”

          “She’s the only family you’ve got.”

          She looked at me again, and any semblance of happiness was gone. She appeared so lost and vulnerable, I couldn’t help saying, “Until we are married. Then you and I will be family.”

          Nancy and I were not a couple prone to public affection. But she emitted a little whimper and kissed me firmly on the mouth. Although delighted, as soon as our lips separated, I looked to my right, slightly embarrassed. But the seat next to me was vacant, and the older lady in the end seat appeared to be sleeping.

          “There’s something I want to make sure you’re considering about your mother,” I said.

          “Stop calling her my mother,” she said quietly, yet menacingly, then folded her arms abruptly. “Phebe’s my aunt.”

          “Maybe she’s biologically your aunt,” I said gently. “But she left her life in California and came to Iowa, far away from your trauma, to raise you, to protect you. Obviously you’re aware of all the beach décor in the house you two lived in. Then practically the minute you left for college, and moved in with Addie, she returned to California. She came to the Midwest knowing only one friend here, and then spent a decade away from the ocean and other friends she loved.”

          “Yeah,” she replied with a look of wonder on her face. Then after staring trance like at the back of her seat for half a minute, she spoke as if to herself. “How did I not see that? I guess couldn’t see the forest because of all the trees.”

          “I have no doubt that Phebe loves you,” I declared.

          “Yes, thank you for opening my eyes,” she responded softly, squeezed my hand. “I do believe my mom loves me.”

          Nancy’s mother/aunt lived in a condo with two other women in Huntington Beach. It was in walking distance from the Pacific Ocean. Despite the deceptions about her childhood, Nancy and Phebe hugged warmly. I was thrilled when Nancy said, “Hi Mom.”

          “Oh Sweety, I was so excited when you let me know you were coming,” Phebe told her, then smiled warmly at me. “And doubly excited that you brought Drew.” Then she laughed. “And triply excited that you two made up and are friends again.”

          “We’re more than friends, Mom, we’re engaged,” Nancy said happily, looking at me and then back to her mom/aunt.

          “Oh Honey, that’s wonderful!” Phebe practically shouted, then hugged her daughter/niece again. Then she hugged me, kissed my cheek, and told us ‘Congratulations.’

          There was a clear family resemblance between the two women. Especially with their hair since Nancy’s red gold hair was now shoulder length, and her mother/aunt’s hair that was once down to her tail bone strawberry blonde hair was now in a short bob.

          Phebe was very much a modern hippie. Long flowing colorful dresses, plenty of beads with rings on most of her fingers. She also had a laid back surfer drawl, which may or may not have been enhanced by the imbibing of marijuana.

          One of Phebe’s roommates was conveniently in Oregan visiting kids and grandkids over that Labor Day weekend. So Nancy was able to stay in her room over our three day stay. I slept in a hideaway bed in the living room. Nancy’s mom/aunt was puzzled that we didn’t sleep together, even after we explained that we weren’t married yet.

          This opened the door for Nancy to share her new Christian faith with Phebe. Her reaction was neutral. Although her vocal response was affirmative by saying ‘that’s nice.’ Her bodily reaction was stiff, as if to say ‘don’t push it on me.’

          Nancy was usually a very gung ho type of person. So I was a little surprised that we were there more than a full twenty four hour day before Nancy broached the subject that had inspired our trip out west in the first place. It came after dinner, during our second evening at Phebe’s.

          “Would you like some dessert?” Nancy’s mom/aunt asked. “I have strawberry ice cream or a coconut Pepperidge Farm cake. Or we could have both.”

          “No thanks,” my bride to be answered with an eerie calm, her fingers laced together and resting on top of the table. “But there is a serious matter I’d like to discuss with you.”

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 16

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 16

NANCY

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

          “If you’ve always felt anxious about seeing him, why do want to meet with him?” Drew asked me.

          “I’m not afraid anymore,” I said boldly, exercising my new faith. “The Lord has given me a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind, not fear.”

          Drew was pleased, his smile loving. And this made me happy as he said, “Quoting 2 Timothy 1:7, very nice.”

          “I need to thank him in person,” I told Drew.

          “How did he rescue you?”

          I had never talked of my escape, and until now, Drew had never asked.

          “He jumped through a picture window.”

          “Huh?”

          “When I was… being used… for… you know.”

          “Yeah,” he said, taking my hand and giving it a supporting squeeze.

          “I usually did what I was told, otherwise I was punished. But the last time I was subjected to their perversion, I broke. When they told Justin to join me on the bed, I started crying. The person who impregnated my mom barked at me to get it together. I tried to reverse the sobs, but I was still choking out these little whimpers.

          “Justin had this look on his face as I tried to hold it together. I don’t really know what was in his expression. Compassion, fear, uncertainty, I don’t know. But all of a sudden, he leapt from the bed and dashed down the stairs. The three guys that were about to film us shouted for him to get back as two gave chase. One watched me.

          “Only seconds after he dashed from the room I heard the crash of breaking glass. He dove through the living room window of the big house we were in. The neighbors across the street were out doing yard work. As soon as they saw a ten year old boy, who wasn’t wearing any clothes, fall into the front yard in a spray of glass, they called 911.”

          I had been pacing as I spoke. As I told of Justin jumping through a picture, I found myself standing in front of the living room window of the Aldo’s home. I felt Drew’s arms go around me, spooning me into himself. It was then I realized that I was trembling. His embrace was like a warm blanket on a cold night. The more I experienced it, the more it felt like home. I couldn’t wait to hold the title of wife.

          “I guess I misspoke a moment ago,” I told him after I felt the softness of his lips just ahead of my right ear.

          “About what?”

          “About having no fear.”

          “I beg to differ.”

          “What do you mean?”

          “You stopped trembling.”

          Reluctantly I stepped out of his reverse hug. But I did something equally as pleasurable. I looped my arms around his neck and put my lips on his. “That’s because after the gift of salvation, the greatest gift God has given me is you.”

          “That’s sweet of you to say. I too can say the same thing.”

          “Hardly,” I said with a laugh that had no humor behind it. “How can you say that when you have been my protector for a decade? Minus three years, due to my stubborn ignorance.”

          “Because my greatest joy on this earth has been loving you.”

          I hugged him fiercely, then kissed him just in front of his right ear before I whispered into it. “I want to marry you as soon as possible. I no longer fear intimacy.”

          “I’m ready and willing,” he told me with a warm smile.

          I couldn’t resist putting my lips on his again. But as soon as our mouths separated, I picked up my phone. Thirty seconds later I spoke to Justin for the first time since we were children. He was delighted to hear from me. He was surprised, but very willing, when I told him I would like to meet with him in person. He also had no problem with Drew joining us.

          A week later we met Justin in Chicago. He lived in a high rise apartment, but we met at a pizza place. I was concerned that it wouldn’t be private enough, but the thought of going to his home was disconcerting. I don’t know why. Although we had been forced to do very inappropriate things together, he ultimately was my rescuer from that prison.

          I remembered Justin as a nice looking, athletic boy with dark hair and brown eyes. Now all these years later, he had the pasty out of shape look of someone who spent a lot of time at a computer or gaming. Also, despite being only in his early twenties, his hair was noticeably thinning.

          I was expecting to see scars all over his face and arms, and even braced for it. I had a vague memory of him in the chaos of police cars and ambulance. I recalled seeing him wrapped in white towels with lots of blood. But upon meeting I only noticed a thin line above his left eyebrow, and a thick two inch scar on his right forearm.

          After shaking hands and telling him it was nice to meet with him, I pointed to the scar. “Is that from…?”

          “Yeah,” he replied casually. Then he humbly added, “I wasn’t cut up as bad as you might think for jumping through glass without, you know, not being dressed.”

          It was indeed awkward at first. I had a hard time looking at him as I simply uttered, “Yeah.”

          A waitress asked if it was three of us. We told her it was and then followed her to a booth. Thankfully, it was fairly secluded for a public setting. Drew slid in next to me, with Justin across from us.

          “I was surprised when you wanted to meet me in person,” Justin said with a hesitant smile after we sat. “I was just hoping for a letter, phone call, or text. Just something to know you turned out alright.”

          “Yeah, well, about that,” I responded. “I felt bad about ignoring you, because I always have really appreciated what you did for me.”

          “I understand. So what motivated you to meet with me now?”

          “I recently became a Christian and I became convicted that I needed to thank you, in person if possible. I also wanted to share my new faith, because it was that that finally gave me enough peace and courage to reach out to you.”

          “I see,” he replied with neutral expression. “Well, good for you. I’m glad you’re in a good place.”

          “Are you a believer?” I asked.

          “I’m a believer in justice.”

          “So what do you do, Justin?” Drew asked.

          “I work in law enforcement,” he said with subtle pride. “On the computer side. I guess you could say I track down scum that do things similar to the things we escaped from.”

          “That’s wonderful!” I said. “So you’re making a career out of rescuing people like you did me.”

          “Yeah, I suppose you could say that,” he replied with a pleasant smile. “Only now I’m able to do it without jumping through picture windows.”

          “I’m sorry,” I said, and had to look away from him.

          “Nancy,” he said, and waited until I looked at him. “What I did saved my life too. But even if it was only yours, I do it over a thousand times.”

          “But not a thousand and one?” I said and instantly regretted the lame joke.

          But Justin laughed and said, “To be honest I would stop at a thousand.”

          After a brief pause, he asked, “How’s your mom?”

          I shrugged. “She’s okay. She moved back to California.”

          A pained look came over his face. It was so weird. I didn’t even know this guy, but I read something in his expression that made me inquire. “What’s wrong?”

          “There is a second reason I wanted to be in communication with you.”

          “Okay,” I replied hesitantly, not completely comfortable with his demeanor.

          “Nancy, do you know much about those three guys that were, um, abusing us, and others?”

          “Just that the man who impregnated my mother was killed in prison. Another committed suicide. And the third disappeared.”

          He winced. “What I know is complicated. By your response, I don’t think you know the truth about, as you put it, the man who impregnated your mother. What I know about him likely will bring you relief. But it will also raise questions about your mother that may be, well, upsetting.”

          “I want the truth,” I said calmly.

          “About your mom or the man you think impregnated your mother?”

          My heart raced but still outwardly calm I replied, “Both.”

          “The woman that brought you to Iowa is your aunt,” he told me, and I felt my jaw drop before he continued. “Her twin sister was addicted to heroin. The guy you thought was your father kept her strung out so he could use you in the vile garbage he made. Just so you know, your mother didn’t know what he was doing. When she found out, she mysteriously died from an overdose.”

          I was completely and totally stunned. Yet I managed to ask, “How do you know this?”

          “I overheard the guy you thought was your dad tell the guy who disappeared that your mom found out what they were doing, but not to worry because he took care of it. The next day I heard she died of an overdose. The rest I found out through my job with the FBI.”

          “Why did my mom, or as you say, my aunt keep this from me?”

          “I have a pretty good hunch therapists told her to pretend she was your mom for your benefit.”

          “But why?” I mumbled.

          “I don’t know if you recall,” Justin said with a pained look in his eyes. “But when you began to cry, you know, just before I went for a leap, you whimpered, ‘I want my mommy.’”

          I felt my lip quiver as I replied, “I remember.” Then God gave me the fortitude to ask, “Who’s my father if the creep isn’t?”

          “I don’t know. That might be a question for your aunt… I’m sorry, your mom.”

          “It is what it is,” I replied mechanically.

          I felt a hand squeeze mine and recognized the familiar touch immediately. I looked at Drew, my fiancée, the I man I was destined to spend the rest of my life with. His look of love and compassion let me know everything would be alright. But in the moment, I still had hard questions I wanted answers to.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 13

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 13

NANCY

OH, THE DEPTH OF THE RICHES BOTH OF THE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD! HOW UNSEARCHABLE ARE HIS JUDGEMENTS AND HIS WAYS PAST FINDING OUT! (Romans 11:33)

            The Lord works in mysterious ways. I had a hard time believing Drew when he told me that God saw me as a virgin. I had a hard time believing God accepted me, as the song declares, ‘Just As I Am.’ Then just when I began to fully believe, I was taken to the lowest depths of doubt and despair.

            First, the most intimidating woman I had ever known had caught me trotting virtually naked through her house. Then Drew’s mother kicked me out of her house. The third strike came when she barged into the room I had briefly stayed in. I was already fighting off a panic attack as I was dressing and gathering up my things. For a second time in not even twenty minutes, I locked eyes with the most intimidating woman I have ever known, while in a state of undress.

            I was wearing only panties when I saw Dr. Aldo’s eyes go to my rib cage, where two dozen thin scars resided. I had resorted to cutting myself in my darkest hours of loneliness and despair. I had never felt such deep shame in my life as the most intimidating woman I had ever known discovered this secret. I pressed my legs together so she wouldn’t see a dozen more on the insides of my thighs.

            I was puzzled when Drew’s mom tried to make a joke about seeing me in a state of undress again. Was she being sarcastic? Even though I perceived she was actually trying to be friendly, my breathing came hard and fast as I failed to hold off the surging panic attack.

            Then right on the brink of an emotional breakdown, it was as if a spiritual switch was flipped. The light of God’s love chased away the demons, and it came through the most intimidating woman I have ever known. She knelt in front of me clutching one of my hands in two of hers. With head bowed she petitioned, “Nancy, would you please forgive me?”

            Although her humble, contrite actions caused my anxiety to change directions, I was dumbfounded and confused as I meekly replied, “For what?”

            “For my whole attitude toward you all a long.”

            I knelt in front of her, and she lifted her bowed head, looking at me with tear rimmed eyes. As we faced each other on our knees, I tried to make sense of what was happening. Why was the most intimidating woman I had ever known being nice to me? Surely Drew had told her that I was dirty and defiled. To top it off, I saw her eyes go to the scars on my rib cage. They were all neatly arranged like a planted row of trees. It was an obvious case of self-abuse rather than an accident. I simply replied, “I don’t understand.”

            “I think you do,” she responded quickly. But her brisk reply was not haughty. She couldn’t hide the fact that she had never liked me. I don’t think she even tried to hide the fact that she didn’t like me. So why now? That’s what I didn’t understand.

            “Did Drew tell you about, you know, what happened before I came to Iowa?”

            Her lips pursed tightly, and her eyes welled with tears as she nodded. But I just gazed at her flatly, numbly. “So you know how dirty and defiled I am.”

            “No, not at all. I see how you were terribly wronged.”

            “You know I’m in love with Drew,” I said mechanically, as if my emotions were all tied up.

            “Yes, I’ve always known that,” she said with what seemed like a warm smile. Did she mean she now didn’t seem to mind? After she now knew how scarred I was, both physically and mentally? I frowned as my tied up emotions began to loosen ever so slightly. I had never, ever had a warm smile aimed at me by the most intimidating woman I had ever known.

            “But I never thought you were right for him,” she admitted. “That was one of the reasons I’ve always treated you kind of coolly.”

            “Try frigid,” I blurted and instantly regretted it. “I’m sorry! Dr Aldo, I didn’t mean to say that. I’m just so discombobulated. Between what happened last night, and now this morning.”

            She laughed, shook her head, and touched my cheek. “No, you’re right, Honey, I was indeed frigid. But I hope to call that a thing of the past going forward.”

            It occurred to me that I was still naked except for my panties. I gasped and covered my breasts with both hands. Rising hastily I said, “I need to get dressed.”

            “I’m sorry for barging in on you, Nancy. I’ll leave, but please tell me you forgive me.”

            “Oh, yes, of course I do,” I replied as I threw on jeans and a t-shirt. “But please don’t go. I want to ask you something.”

            She stopped her retreat and looked at me with arched eyebrows. “Sure, ask me anything.”

            I chewed my lower lip for a few seconds. “Drew told me that in God’s eyes, I’m a virgin. What’s your opinion?”

            “I agree with my son one hundred percent.”

            “How can that be?” I puzzled as I sat on the bed.

            Dr. Aldo sat next to me. “Because what happened to you wasn’t your choice.”

            “But I did what the man who impregnated my mother told me to do.”

            The most intimidating woman I had ever known looked lovingly at me as she put a gentle hand on my knee. “Honey, you were only a child. There’s a reason there are laws. There’s a reason a person isn’t considered an adult until a certain age. And my Dear, you were a long, long way from that certain age.”

            We were silent for a long moment as I gathered my thoughts. Then the most intimidating woman I had ever known spoke with the meekest voice I had ever heard from her. “Sweety, can I ask you something?”

            Honey, Dear, and now Sweety from the most intimidating woman I had ever known. I frowned and said, “Sure.”

            “Do you still cut yourself?”

            I felt my face flush as I shook my head. “No.”

            “Good,” was all she said as she patted my knee.

            Even though she didn’t inquire further, I wanted her to know something. “The only times I ever cut, was when Drew wasn’t a part of my life.”

            “So why did you push away from your friendship with him early on in high school?”

            I noticed she said friendship, so I began to test the waters a little bit. “Because I was deeply in love with him, and I knew I didn’t deserve him. I also was scared. What I went through as child made me fearful of physical intimacy. I didn’t want to be unfair to him.”

            She looked at me with a pained expression. I wondered whether it was because I declared to be in love with her precious son, or whether out of concern for how damaged and broken I had been. Her next words surprised me. “Drew’s deeply in love with you as well.”

            I looked at her with a stunned expression, and the most intimidating woman I had ever known giggled. I didn’t know that Dr. Penelope Aldo was even capable of giggling. “Does my acknowledgement surprise you?”

            “Yes, it does!”

            “Listen, I’m a realist. Until today, I never really liked you, but I’ve always known you held Drew’s affections.”

            “I don’t understand your sudden change about me. Is it pity?”

            “It’s self-realization.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean that after talking with Drew, it hit me like a spiritual slap in the face that I was being judgmental. I always thought you were snotty and opinionated. Actually not unlike my own inclinations. But after Drew’s explanation, what I perceived as arrogance in you turned out to be brokenness.”

            “I see.”

            “Please don’t take what I’m gonna tell you next the wrong way.”

            “Okay,” I replied cautiously.

            “As a vet, I’ve tended to hundreds of abused animals. So as soon as I found out how horribly abused you had been, it didn’t take long for shame and then repentance to take effect.”

            “I’m glad you care for us damaged animals,” I replied with a lighthearted smile.

            “You’re a precious child of God. I do apologize for behaving self-righteously and judgmentally all these years.”

            “Regardless of what made me who I am, or was, or whatever, I was frequently a snot. Forgive me for giving you a reason to not like me with my frequent bad attitude.”

            “So I guess we forgive each other?”

            “Yes, lets.”

            “Can I ask you one more question, and once again I mean no offense?”

            “Let me guess, you’re wondering if my interest to get baptized is genuine, or a ploy to please Drew.”

            “You know what else is sudden? You and me being on the same page. Yes, that is what I’m wondering.”

            “I believe it is genuine, but it is all so new to me. I guess I had been ignoring the Holy Spirit. But then last night, witnessing Drew’s faith with a gun pointed at his head… I mean, I have always wanted that peace and faith Drew has. But then witnessing Drew’s faith and calm under such duress, I went from wanting it to needing it. Talking with him this morning, he convinced me I could have it.”

            “I’m glad. You know, the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that repents.”

            “They do?”

            “Yes, look up Luke 15:7 and 10.”

            “I will,” I replied, and we smiled awkwardly at each other, but in good way. “Oh my! Where does it all go from here?”

            “that remains to be seen, Honey,” she said, patting my knee and standing. “But I think it will be good. But promise me one thing. Don’t ever run out of Drew’s life again, even if you decide to just be friends.”

            “I won’t,” I replied as I also stood. “I promise.”

            Then the most intimidating woman I had ever known hugged me warmly and kissed my cheek. I discovered that day how amazing the working of the Holy Spirit is. For I once I was lost, but now I was found!

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 4

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 4

DREW

DELIVER THOSE WHO ARE DRAWN TOWARD DEATH, AND HOLD BACK THOSE STUMBLING TO THE SLAUGHTER (Proverbs 24:11)

            “How do you know Ben was the last to see this girl?” I asked Nancy.

            “Multiple people told the police when they briefly looked into it,” she explained.  “Even her best friend said the last time she saw her was when she was leaving a frat party with Ben.”

            “Her who, what’s this girl’s name?”

            “Channel Northrup, nineteen years old.”

            “If you really think she’s out here, we should get a dog.”

            “That’s a good idea! Does your mom still have dogs?”

            “A couple rug rats. They’re not exactly blood hounds, more like pampered lap dogs.”

            “Let’s look around. We’ll worry about getting a dog out here later.”

            I liked that she said we. Just like old times, Nancy and Drew sleuthing together. Only this time it wasn’t stolen lunch money, and we weren’t exactly kids any more. So we began a sweep of the spooky half of the woods. As we walked ten feet apart, we talked and got caught up on each other’s lives.

            For me there wasn’t much to tell. So I started off with asking the most curious thing about my old, young friend. “Is that an engagement ring on your left hand?”

            She held it out and looked at it briefly before replying, “Promise ring.”

            “Who’s the lucky guy?”

            “What makes you think it’s from a guy?” she asked, glancing at me with a challenging smirk.

            I had tried to explain back when she began to pull away from our friendship, that just because I lived my life by Biblical standards didn’t mean I looked down on people that didn’t. Only God knows the heart, I tried to reiterate that over and over, but to no avail. Only God is the judge, and only He has the ability to know who is following the light that they have.

            I shrugged. “Okay, who’s the lucky girl?”

            “It is from a guy,” she said, looking at it again as if it puzzled her.

            “You must be pretty serious then?”

            Now she made a face as if she bit into something sour. “I don’t know. We were just friends for most of the school year. I’m mostly asexual, so I wanted us to just stay friends. But a few weeks ago we both had been drinking at a party and ended up kissing. Rather passionately, actually. But I still had enough wits about myself to refrain from getting too touchy feely.”

            The irony about Nancy’s and my friendship dissolving was the older we got, the more I fancied her. I had hoped she felt the same, but then she began to pull away. It must have been the asexual thing. Plus we both seemed to want to convert each other to our opposing world views.

            I tried not to feel jealous thinking about her kissing a guy passionately, especially the not getting TOO touchy feely part. Just how much was the TOO? And what did MOSTLY asexual mean anyway? When she continued, it only intensified my battle with the green eyed monster.

            “After I told him I wasn’t comfortable having sex without a commitment, I thought that would get him to back off. Instead he gave me this ring. So I thought, okay, he’s really sweet, really into me, decent enough looking, why not give him what he wants, so I accepted it.”

            I almost threw up in my mouth. The odd thing is I already assumed that she was no longer chaste. For a tomboy, Nancy was rather feminine in tough sort of way, if that makes sense. Plus she was kind of cute, and I liked that she was a jeans and t-shirt type of girl with no frills or gaudy makeup, with her short red gold hair often looking windblown.

            “So, we kind of had an unspoken agreement that this would be the weekend,” she continued, with a strangely pained looking expression on her face, and twirling the ring nervously round and round her finger. She whispered, even though we were very much alone, “That we would, you know, have sex.”

            She opened the door for me to extract some information discreetly. “So you had planned on losing your virginity this weekend, but this missing girl thing came up instead?”

            “Exactly!” She beamed.

            I felt like I had just given the green eyed monster a solid right hook that staggered him. The only girl I ever had a major crush on thus far in my life was still chaste! For the time being anyway. The fantasy was still alive! Yet at the bottom of my heart, I knew I didn’t want to be yoked with someone that wasn’t of faith like mine. Yet there was no young lady in my church that tripped my trigger. So I had been mentally preparing for what the Apostle Paul advised in in 1 Corinthians 7:7-9.

            She stopped walking, so did I. She faced me from ten feet apart, so I faced her. She said, “I thought looking into this mystery was a convenient excuse to postpone, you know, consummating with Diego.”

            A few birds began squabbling in the dank woods about twenty feet away, causing us to look. It was as if the green eyed monster leapt up and charged at me again. She was only postponing sex with her would be Latin lover. But the old green eyed fellow didn’t see a left hook coming.

            “But running into you here,” she said as she stepped toward me with a look of awe in her  emerald eyes. “It seems like a sign.”

            “What kind of sign?” I asked, both hopeful and hesitant.

            Her look of awe turned into consternation. She did a one eighty, walked briskly to fallen log and sat. She continued to turn the ring as if trying to unscrew it from her finger. But apparently in wouldn’t come off. Would that monster not stay down? I slowly walked over and sat a few feet away from her on the log.

            I tried again. “What did you mean by a sign?”

            “You’re the only guy I ever truly desired,” she said quietly.

            “What’d you say?” I asked, not quite sure I heard her right. I thought it might have finally been a knockout blow for the monster. Until she barked, “You heard me!”

            “Well, you’re the only girl I have ever desired,” I told her.

            “Could have fooled me,” she quipped as she stood and walked several paces, then abruptly crossing her arms.

            I walked to her, and wondered what I should do. Rub her back? Hug her? Instead I jammed my hands into my jean pockets, looked at her out of the corners of my eyes, and asked cautiously. “What do you mean by could have fooled you?”

            She smiled sadly at me. Then she gently said, with fondness in her voice, “Remember the last few months we hung out? I wanted you kiss me so badly, but you just wouldn’t take the hint.”

            I frowned. What hint? “The last few months we hung out, you seemed to frequently try to engage us in arguments. I felt like you were pulling away, which you were. So what kind of hint wasn’t I getting?”

            She put a hand on her forehead, covering her eyes as if embarrassed. “Do you not remember swapping gum?”

            “Of course I do, it was the biggest thrill I ever had in our time together!”

            It happened about a half a dozen times, seven to be exact. Nancy would try a new flavor of gum, not like it, and ask me to trade with her. Not out of the pack mind you, but the gum we were currently chewing. Her excuse was not being wasteful.

            Now I was strictly a peppermint Trident man when it came to chew. But I didn’t hesitate to take on a foreign flavor if it meant trading spit with the girl of my dreams.

            She removed her hand from her eyes. “Really! It was?”

            “You bet! As a matter of fact, you’re the only girl I have ever kissed.”

            She giggled. “We never actually kissed. We just swapped gum. Kissing entails contact.”

            “Well, to me it was like kissing.”

            “So how come you never tried for the real thing then?”

            “I wanted to,” I confessed. “Oh did I ever want to. But something always told me to keep my distance… So that gum thing was a hint?”

            “Ya think? Asking to swap with me once would be one thing, Twice a coincidence. But a half dozen times with ABC gum was a major hint. I mean would you swap ABC gum with Jerry even once?”

            She was referring to my brother. “No way!”

            “See, and I asked you a half dozen times!”

            “Actually it was seven to be exact,” I told her with a coy smile.

            She smiled warmly. “Yes, seven. Grape, banana, strawberry, tropical, wintergreen, bubble gum that tasted like cardboard, and spearmint.”

            “I did think it a little odd that you didn’t just buy peppermint Trident since you seemed to like mine. But I enjoyed your sampling of different flavors, and was glad you didn’t.”

            We looked at each other for a long moment. She licked her lips. Did she want me to kiss her now? I remained frozen, not knowing what to do. With wide eyes she asked, “Why did you feel like keeping your distance from me?”

            As a kid you often avoid difficult, emotional stuff. Which I did. But as an adult, for I was a month from eighteen, healthy communication is good for a relationship. Even if it is only as friends. “I always detected something very broken in you, so I treaded carefully.”

            Her eyes welled, and she nodded. “You’re wise beyond your years, and I was a fool. I did have something very traumatic in my life before mom and I moved here.”

            I remember Nancy showing up around the third grade. My first impressions of her were quiet, pensive, sullen, but cute. “Do you want to talk about it?”

            She shook her head emphatically. “No.”

            “Okay,” I smiled.

            She now began to twist that ring so vigorously that I was concerned it would draw blood. “It’s so odd. That last year we hung out. I so badly wanted you to hug me by times, hold my hand, kiss me. Yet just as often I wanted you to keep your distance, hands off. Talk about a walking contradiction. Then I treated you like my psychological hang ups were your fault, or your God’s fault. I’m surprised you put up with me. You should have been the one to tell me to pound sand, not the other way around.”

            She looked hard at me. I couldn’t say anything until she prodded it out of me. “Why?”

            “Because I love you.”

            “You mean loved, as in past tense?”

            “No, love, as in always.”

            “You mean as friends?” she asked and then bit her thumb, gazing at me with anguished eyes.

            “What else?” I shrugged. Then I smiled. “After all, swapping gum isn’t a real kiss.”

            She took several quick steps toward me, placed both hands on the sides of my cheeks and pressed her mouth hard against mine. After five to ten seconds she pulled away and looked puzzled. “You didn’t kiss me back.”

            I took hold of her left hand and lifted it up as if to kiss the back of it. “You’re promised to someone else.”

            After all that twisting, she yanked it off in a second and tossed it behind her shoulder. Our searching of the woods had brought us by the old cemetery. The ring made a tink as it ricocheted off a tombstone. This time I kissed her back.

            After a few minutes, it was getting pretty steamy, so I gently eased away. But Nancy kept her arms hooked around my neck and whispered. “Let’s make love. I want you to be my first.”

            Her first? “I want you to be my only. But only after marriage.”

            She smiled and gave me a soft kiss. “Drew, it’s the twenty first century.”

            “Biblical morality is timeless. Besides, what happened to you being asexual? You want me to be the first of how many?”

            Her arms dropped to her sides, and she shook her head. “First is a figure of speech, and I said mostly asexual. As in you’re an exception.”

            “An exception, or the exception?”

            “Obviously I planned on sleeping with Diego. So how can I say you’re the only exception? But it’s only you two.”

            Those who wrote songs about love hurting sure got it right. Especially when you fall for someone with a different value system. She looked toward the area where she threw her ring. “I better find that ring. I’ll need to give it back to Diego.”

            Oh the yins and yangs of life! First I’m fighting off jealousy over Diego. Then I started panicking over her breaking up with him, seemingly to be with me. Sure I found her attractive, but ultimately I needed to be with someone of like beliefs. Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3).

            I helped her scan the cemetery for her ring. We were moving sticks and branches out of the way with our feet, when I noticed something out of the ordinary. At a spot in between two tombstones, the earth beneath the leaf and stick debris was different. It wasn’t quite as hard packed as the rest of the graveyard. And it had been double digit decades since someone had been buried out here. Or had it?

            “Nancy?” I said a little breathlessly.

            “Drew?”

            “Check this out.”

            She observed my observation. Then we both looked at each other, and at the same time said, “Let’s get shovels.”

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 12

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 12

ARLO ALDO

BEFORE I FORMED YOU IN THE WOMB I KNEW YOU; BEFORE YOU WERE BORN I SANCTIFIED YOU; I ORDAINED YOU A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS (Jeremiah 1:5)

            I had never had such an extreme mood swing in my life! I went from several days of despondency to ecstasy in a matter of minutes. The only reason it took minutes instead of seconds was it was too good to be true, or so it seemed. My mind reeled, processed, and then I felt overwhelming love for a future child and the present mother who carried him.

            Female flesh had never looked so good as I gazed upon Penny’s swollen abdomen. Yet it wasn’t a lustful gaze as I swayed on my knees in front of her. It didn’t help my chaotic mind that I was sleep deprived. I looked up at her and then arose a bit unsteadily. “How do you feel about this?”

            “Freaked out,” Penny replied, strangely matter of fact.

            “That will happen with an unwanted pregnancy,” I told her. My declaration was actually a bit of a test. I liked her response.

            She frowned, and I could see her jaw muscles move briefly before she spoke. “I wouldn’t say it’s unwanted, but more like unexpected.”

            “How come you’re just now telling me?” I asked softly, not wanting her to think I was angry. “Our encounter was four months ago.”

            Her lovely dark eyes widened guiltily. “Arlo, honestly, I just discovered for sure only a little more than a week ago. I meant to tell you several days ago at church. But we were either interrupted or I couldn’t get up the nerve. But I had been in denial, I guess. When I noticed the weight gain, I was sure it was from snacking too much. As far as missing my menstrual cycle, its happened before due to being perimenopausal.”

            “What’s that?”

            “You know, symptoms that some women get before the actual menopause itself. In a nutshell, menopause is a time in a woman’s life when she loses the ability to bare children.”

            “Well, it seems you’re not menopausal yet.”

            “Ya think!” she snapped. Then she sat with a hard thump onto my bed and leaned back on her arms.

            I quickly squatted in front of her and clutched both sides of her belly. “Hey, easy.”

            She chuckled. “Who would have thought the wild he man rock star, Arlo Aldo, would make a loving father? But I think you will.”

            “I appreciate your vote of confidence,” I told her. “Let me ask you this though. What kind of husband do you think I’ll make?”

            “Well, your ex-wife apparently didn’t think you were a very good one,” she blurted.

            That hurt! Penny had a reputation for a sharp tongue, but that was cold. I reeled back and sat down hard myself. Only the floor was much harder than the bed Penny had plopped on to. My sleep deprived brain was jarred. I shook my head, stood abruptly, and downed the rest of my bottle of water. Penny came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist in a reverse hug. “Arlo, I’m sorry for that, but I didn’t like the direction you were going. I’m already freaked out about the prospect of motherhood. Bringing up marriage makes me be doubly freaked.”

            I turned and her arms fell by her sides. She did look contrite, so I smiled. “I guess a person reaps what they sow.”

            “What do you mean?”

            I shrugged. “I married Reese without hardly knowing her. Now I was testing the waters with you in the same boat.”

            Her face softened, but her words about my ex were harsh. “I am not the same boat as your ex-wife at all! If I were to take the plunge of marriage, I would die before I betrayed my vows.”

            Her softened face hardened again. Then her eyes welled, and she stomped to the window, abruptly crossing her arms as she gazed out at Mrs. Mendelbright’s backyard. Now I went and reverse hugged her, my hands resting on our child cocooned in her womb. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t comparing you two as people, only thinking about marriage again without knowing someone very well.”

            She turned to face me, and my arms fell by my sides. “It’s not that. After I spoke, I realized what a hypocrite I am.”

            She walked past me and plopped down hard on the bed again. I went and knelt in front of her again and placed my hands on her stomach. “Will you stop being so rough on our baby?”

            She laughed despite a tear running down her cheek. “Arlo, our baby is fine with the way I sat. If I sign up for roller derby, then you can get up tight.”

            I began to gently caress her abdomen. She looked me sternly in the eyes. “Arlo, unless you’re willing to make love, please stop touching me.”

            “That’s why I’m insinuating marriage, Pen. I want to make love with you in the worst way.”

            “Why is it the worst way? Shouldn’t it be the best way?”

            “No, because right now it’s forbidden.”

            “Why, just because we don’t have a legal document or have participated in a ceremony?”

            “It’s more than that. The document and ceremony represent commitment.”

            She sighed. “I know you’re right, but it’s hard to give up the old ways of thinking. The thing is Arlo, and this is full disclosure. I think I’ve always been afraid of commitment. So can you blame me? I mean how long have we known each other?”

            “Twenty three, twenty four years.”

            She laughed. “And with a twenty two and half or twenty three and a half year gap in between. As a matter of fact, I’ve only had one relationship last more than a year.”

            “How much longer than a year?”

            “Two months short of two years.”

            “Hmm, a catch twenty-two.”

            “More than you know.”

            “So what happened?”

            “The person was married, we got found out, and their marriage ended.”

            “So that ended your relationship with him as well?”

            “He didn’t want it to. He wanted me to marry him. But like I said, I feared commitment. Plus, I hated myself for being the other woman. My dad left my mom for a younger woman, and I absolutely despised him for it. So much so I even changed my last name to Balwin because I didn’t want his name attached to me. Then I end up doing the same thing only on the other end.”

            “Let me guess, he was older with a family?”

            She made a pained expression and nodded. “I interned under him in North Dakota. He had two other vets working for him. When my internship was up, I was hired and worked another two years at his clinic. He was handsome like an old time movie star. He reminded me of Cary Grant.”

            “What, was he like fifty or sixty years older than you?”

            “No,” she said with a scowl and threw a pillow. Then she sheepishly admitted, “Twenty-one years older.”

            “Did you love him?”

            She shrugged. “Yes, while at the same time despising him for being unfaithful.”

            “It takes two to commit adultery,” I said, and then cringed.

            But she looked humbled. “I have no excuse, but excuses were exactly what I made.”

            “What kind of excuses?”

            “First I bought into him having a loveless, sexless marriage; but that he stayed in it for the kids. So it started as friends with benefits, and I told myself his marriage was between him and his wife. If it wasn’t me, it would be someone else, and I was jealous of the imaginary someone else. I also told myself I would never let him leave his wife for me, which I held to. But there was always guilt, which was overruled by the thrill of the illicit and forbidden. Plus I always told myself just one more time, or this was the last time. There was also the satisfaction of it not being a real, time consuming relationship. I didn’t have to go to family functions, cook dinner, or argue about housekeeping. I could focus on my career. My career was also another aspect. He was a brilliant doctor, and a fantastic mentor… Is that enough excuses? I’m sure I could come up with more.”

            “Plenty.”

            “So how about you? How come you never married Elsa after what, six or seven years?”

            She was referring to my longtime girlfriend who was a model and actress. “Eight. The simple answer is that I didn’t want to marry someone who would have me as a husband.”

            She laughed, but I told her. “That’s no joke. I think she was more attracted to my stage persona than to me. There was also the element of my money. Even before I was a Christian, I didn’t like the prospect of a prenup. If you’re not going to pledge forever, what’s the point?”

            “But after that long with her, wasn’t there a common law factor anyway?”

            “No, we never lived together. When Elsa and I were together, I spent more than three fourths of my life on the road. Our home was hotels whenever we could get together.”

            “So when your marriage with Reese ended, did she get half?”

            “She got half of my earnings from the band during the time we were together. But she was unaware of my other investments which exceeded my salary from the band. She settled for a two million dollar settlement. She made out pretty good, since it seemed she only married me for my money.”

            “I don’t understand, you look like you should be on the cover of a romance novel.”

            I felt myself make a face, and she laughed. “It’s a compliment, Arlo.”

            “But that sort of sums it up. She looked at me like I was a feral, dumb jock. Turns out she was more into the charismatic, plastic type.”

            “Why were you attracted to her?”

            “It was a combination of things. Elsa and I had broken up a couple months earlier, and as shallow as our relationship had been, it left me feeling empty. I was tired of life on the road and wanted to settle down. I started reading self help and spiritual books. We were finishing up a world tour, and our last stop was LA, where we were based out of.

            “Being known as a satanic band, we often had protesters, but I usually ignored them. But there was no ignoring Reese. She looked like a Victoria’s Secret model dressed in ‘Little House On the Prairie’ garb. I was captivated and approached her. We talked about spiritual things for about ten minutes before I told her who I was. She was fascinated, which should have been a clue. She was protesting my show, but then she was enthralled by my presence.

            “We had dinner the next night, I went to church with her, I quit the band, we began dating, I got baptized, we got married, she cheated, yadda, yadda, yadda, we got divorced. On the plus side, her ultimate view of me as a neanderthal saved me a lot of money. Instead of getting half, she didn’t even get ten percent.”

            “Just how much are you worth?” Penny asked. Then she closed her eyes and held up a hand. “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”

            “No worries,” I grinned. “You’re worth half if you decide to marry me.”

            She threw another pillow at me. I caught it and with toes curled told her. “Twenty seven million last time I checked.”

            She gasped, and her eyes widened. After she processed this for a minute, she said, “Well, I guess I don’t need to worry about child support.”

            “Especially if we’re married,” I told her, attempting a charming smile.

            But she only frowned. “Why didn’t what you said about Elsa apply to Reese?”

            “What do you mean?”

            “You know, how you wouldn’t marry someone who would have you as a husband?”

            “Well, two reasons. I asked her after I quit the band and converted to Christianity. And second, after I converted to Christianity, I was convicted that I shouldn’t have sex outside of marriage. Forgive me if this is TMI, but I really like sex. That’s how I ended up allowing you to seduce me.”

            She reached for another pillow to throw, but there wasn’t one. So I threw the last pillow she threw at me back at her. She caught it and then marched over to me and began beating it over my head. It didn’t hurt.

            I grabbed her and pulled her onto my lap. Laughing, she said, “Arlo, careful, the baby!”

            I immediately let go of my grip on her. She laughed harder, then kissed me on the mouth. I kissed her back, then said desperately, “Penny, marry me!”

            She sprang off my lap as if I was on fire. She ran a hand through her silky dark hair and looked at me as if I was crazy. Maybe I was. “Arlo, are you nuts?”

            I went to her and pulled her into my arms. “Yes, for you.”

            “I can’t believe you’re willing to marry a second time on short notice.”

            “Short notice?” I laughed. “There’s a big difference between this and last time. The biggest is we’re having a child together, and I want to be a part of his or her life. So you and I might as well marry so we can make a sibling.”

            She laughed. “Actually I was already regretting that he or she wouldn’t have a sibling.”

            “Then we’ll start working on a second as soon as possible. After all your biological clock is almost out of time.”

            She shoved me but chuckled. “Thanks a lot.”

            We had an awkward moment where we just stared at each other. Then I asked, “Can we pray?”

            “Sure,” she said, and we knelt on the floor, facing each other. We held hands and I asked for a blessing on our child. I had mentioned that God knew our baby before he was even in the womb.

            When our prayer ended, a little miracle transpired. As we arose from our knees, Penny asked, “If it’s a boy, how about the name Jeremiah?”

            “Sure. Was it because of my prayer?”

            “Sort of. I thought of my grandfather, my mother’s father when you mentioned in the womb. He was a doctor, and he was my biggest inspiration on me becoming a doctor myself. Only he was a people doctor and has delivered many babies. His name was Jeremiah, but he went by Jerry. Anyhow, my mom was an only child, and it was family lore that she was supposed to be Jerry Jr. if she was a boy.”

            “Did you know that when I mentioned God knowing our baby before he was in the womb, I was borrowing from the book of Jeremiah?”

            “Really!”

            “Yeah, maybe he’ll be ordained a prophet to the nations as well. That’s what the rest of the verse says. Whatever his life course, he will be blessed because we asked, and God is faithful.”

            Penny’s face seemed aglow. Her eyes were misty, and she looked joyful. She hugged me. She was so natural. I inhaled her sent. No perfume, just her and maybe a hint of Ivory soap. Her warm breath declared something musical into my ear. “I love you, Arlo.”

            “I love you too, Penny. That’s why you should marry me. Soon, very soon.”

            She pushed away from me, her face still radiating joy. I’m sure her words back to me caused me to radiate joy as well, for they gave me hope. “Maybe I will.”