Tag: short-fiction

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 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.