Bratwurst and Bridges

by Baganz, Susan M. ;

  “Just Dan.”

  “Who is Dan Wink?”

  “That’s what I’m here to find out.”

  For the next forty-five minutes, he told his story and she asked questions and got family history.

  “Our time is up for now. The initial session might seem disappointing because we never addressed your issues, but trust me. This was necessary. Can you come back next week? We’ll dig in then.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Let me pray for you before you go.”

  Dan bowed his head.

  “Heavenly Father, You understand the depth of pain in Dan’s heart and his need for Your healing touch. I thank You that You have allowed me to be part of his journey. You have great plans and a future in store for this man whom You gifted and called to tasks You have set aside especially for him. People You intend to bless through him. Glory that will be given to Your name because of his journey. Comfort him and let Him see Your hand in his life. Jesus, You alone are the bridge to healing and wholeness in this broken and sinful world, and we ask that You will be at work here when we meet.”

  “Amen, and thank you.” Dan rose and left. Hope broke through the hardened ground in his heart like a tiny plant emerging after winter, sensing the warmth of the sun. He fought the temptation to stomp it out with the heavy boot of self-condemnation.

  That only worked until he arrived back at his apartment.

  Loose ends. He didn’t know what to do with himself. He had time to waste, kill, or spend and no idea what to do, or even who he could do anything with. He slumped into his chair and flipped through the channels on the television. Why had he gotten cable? He flicked the television off, grabbed his guitar, and played every song he could remember off the top of his head, sometimes singing along.

  The music held the demons at bay. At least for now.

  The sound of glass breaking and the blast of freezing cold air coincided with a brick that landed at his feet. He jumped up and set the guitar to the side. He ran to the window to find a man in the tree wearing a hoodie and ripped jeans. On the back side of the apartment complex where his porch faced, there was an incline and several trees.

  “Where is she?”

  “Where is who? Who are you?” Dan dialed 911 as the man hefted another brick. Dan backed into the apartment and ran for his coat as he talked to the dispatcher. Sirens squealed. and soon police swarmed the yard. Police officers wrestled with the perpetrator, who had to be freezing cold.

  An officer came to take Dan’s statement. “Do you know this man?”

  “Never saw him before in my life. He asked me about a woman, but I had no idea who he was referring to.”

  “He’s the ex-husband of your neighbor, Skye O’Connell, and he’s been harassing her. We think he got the wrong apartment and when he saw you he thought maybe you and her…”

  Dan held up his hands. “Whoa, I’ve met Skye but we are not involved. I only moved in a few weeks ago. I can’t believe he would do something like that, endangering his own children?”

  “Drugs mess with the ability to think logically, much less with common sense. He’s high. Do you want to press charges?”

  Dan thought about it. If that brick had been aimed at the right apartment, the man could have killed one of his own children. It came near to doing him serious harm. He nodded. Natural consequences might help the man. “Yes. Can I come and see him after he’s sobered up?”

  The officer shrugged. “Sure. Try tomorrow. He’s not going to be in any condition to listen right now anyway, pastor.”

  “Do I know you?”

  The man grinned. “I’ve attended church a few times. I really enjoy how you lead worship.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.”

  “It’s a big church, and I’ve not really introduced myself before.”

  “Well, Officer Nelson, thank you for your quick response and help today.”

  “I’m glad no one was injured.”

  “Me too. Guess I’d better make a call and figure out how this window is going to get fixed, and fast.”

  “Stay warm.” The officer took off and Dan shut the door, left his landlord a message, and started to pick up the shattered glass.

  He supposed the blessing is that he hardly had anything in the room, so clean up would be easier. He got the glass out to the dumpster and noted that it began to snow again. Great. He still hadn’t heard back from the landlord, so he went to his storage unit in the basement. All that it contained were broken down cardboard boxes. He grabbed the larger ones, hauled them upstairs, and left them in the hallway while he went back inside to run the vacuum over the floor. When he returned to get the boxes, Skye stood there, still in her coat, with two little people by her side.

  “Hi.” He grabbed a box and went back into the apartment for duct tape. Then he headed to the window. Skye stood in the doorway with the kids.

  “You’re not moving, are you? Wait. What happened to your window?”

  “Can you come hold this for me while I tape this up?” She came over and held the cardboard in place.

  The sound of taping filled the air as the kids watched in fascination. He finished taping up the window, but a cold draft still came in. “It’s going to take a while for this place to warm up again,” Skye noted.

  “Yeah, but it will.”

  “You still never said what happened.”

  Dan looked over at the kids. “I’m not going to when there are little ears.”

  Skye nodded. “Do you want to come hang out at our place while yours warms up?”

  “I appreciate the offer.” He walked her back to the door. “It’s my policy not be alone with a single woman in her apartment without another adult present.”

  “My kids are good chaperones.”

  “It’s not that at all. I’m not suggesting you, or I, would do anything inappropriate. It’s the appearance or suggestion of it that prevents me.”

  “But I was in your apartment.”

  “With the door wide open and only for a few minutes. Thank you for your help.” He stopped her. “Wait. Your pie pan.” He whipped off his gloves and tossed them in the garbage with more of the glass. The leather was torn. He grabbed the pan off the kitchen table. “I wanted to return this to you and thank you.”

  “Did you enjoy the pie?”

  “It was as good as what my wife used to make me. Thank you.”

  Her face lit up at his compliment. Soon the door was shut, locked, and he shivered once again in his lonely apartment. He moved his guitar to the warmer guest bedroom and closed the door. He cranked the thermostat, grateful his heat was included in the rent. It was going to be hot in the bedrooms, but hopefully the temp would even out so he could sleep here tonight.

  Soon the landlord called and brought over some particle board to help keep the cold out. Arrangements were made for new sliding glass door installation in the morning.

  He grabbed his keys to head to the department store. He found himself in need of a new pair of gloves.

  ~*~

  Skye got the kids settled down for naps and tried to paint. Something in Dan’s voice had warned her. Something indefinable in his eyes and the way they had searched hers, told her that the damage done in his apartment was serious indeed and not some silly prank.

  The landlord came and went with boards and she hoped Dan’s apartment would warm up. The kids had been quite good today and she was grateful. The phone rang.

  “Skye?”

  “Who is this?”

  “Riley. You’re my one call. Come on. You’ve got to bail me out here.”

  “What did you do now?”

  “Destruction of property.”

  “Why?”

  “I’d rather not say. Just get money to post bail for me.”

  “I don’t have money.”

  “Where does my child support go?”

  “What child support? You’ve not been working, so we get nothing.”

  “So yo
u and that neighbor got something going?”

  “What you are talking about? There are seven other apartments here and I have nothing going with any of the people who live here.”

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  “Yeah. I do. Just because you can’t keep your pants on when a pretty girl looks your way doesn’t mean I’m chasing guys. And it’s none of your business anyway; we’re divorced.”

  “Don’t get your undies in a bundle. I just want out. Why can’t you help me?”

  “You’re high, and I’m not responsible for you or your actions. I will not bail you out. Please do not call me again. If this harassment continues, I’ll be contacting the attorney about a no-contact order against you.”

  ‘You can’t keep me from my kids.”

  “No. But the judge can after I contact the guardian-ad-litum.”

  “They are mine.”

  “Then act like a man who is worth looking up to and not some selfish, irresponsible teenager.”

  “So that neighbor is a ‘man’ like that, is he?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Quinn told me all about him and how you baked him a pie.”

  “When or who I date is, and forever will be, none of your business.” She hung up the phone and missed the old days of corded phones where the actual slamming down of the receiver hurt the ears of the person on the other end.

  Skye paced the apartment taking deep breaths to slow her rapidly beating heart. She stopped.

  Dan was right. The appearance or even suggestion of evil is powerful. She had no clue her son would mention the handsome pastor to her ex-husband, or that Riley would be so violent about it. Dan obviously suspected something about the person who broke the window or he wouldn’t have been so circumspect around the kids.

  Hmmm, a man with wisdom and discretion. What a novel concept.

  How did this impact her choices? She was desperate for friends and connection. She’d lost all of her friends when she walked away from drugs and the lifestyle Riley lived.

  She settled down at her easel and was hardly aware of time passing until she heard Meghan cry for her. She set aside her brushes, tore off her smock, and put things out of the kids’ reach before checking on them.

  As they came into the living room for a snack and some television, she stepped back to look at her painting. She gasped when it dawned on her what she had painted…a little church. A cross on top. The sunrise coming up behind it, diffusing the darkness all around and bathing the small building in light and all else in shadow. The cross glistened at the top. She stepped back to try to evaluate the painting from a more objective perspective…but she couldn’t. Her pulse quickened and she rushed to put the painting in her bedroom to dry…away from the kids and away from her own sight.

  Church. Mom suggested she find one. Dan asked her about it, and now her art was suddenly littered with religious symbols.

  God, no offense but You weren’t there when Riley was destroying our family. You weren’t there when I cried myself to sleep at night worried over our finances or the health of my children. You weren’t there when I sought help from a shelter to get free. You weren’t there in court or when Riley came to try to break in here. You weren’t there for any of these awful things in my life. She paused to take a deep breath.

  I was there.

  She looked around and ran to the door. She peered out the peephole. No one was there. She glanced at the television. No, the sound hadn’t come from there. Was she hearing things now? That hadn’t been too unusual when doing some of the drugs they had tried, but it had been years…so why now? Was she finally descending into madness?

  FIVE

  Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Dan bought his new gloves. A nicer pair than the ones that he ruined cleaning up the glass. Those were a gift from his wife years ago.

  Why did it always come back to her? Was every memory to be associated with Sharon? Was he ever to be free of the shackles of his marriage? Didn’t the marriage vows say “until death do us part?” Well, she parted.

  He paused as he sat in his car in the parking lot. Snowflakes flitted around outside and landed on any surface available. The vows had been fulfilled. They were over. So why did he live as if he were still bound?

  Maybe it was his way of deluding himself that he wasn’t really all alone. Except she had abandoned him for glory. Sharon was free of pain, suffering, and the grief they struggled with. The lost dreams. The dead babies. He swallowed hard. He was left behind.

  You have a choice.

  He looked outside but saw no one. God? Dan shook his head and left the warmth of the vehicle. Trudging up the icy sidewalk, he entered the building and stomped the snow off his shoes and pants. Why did he live in Wisconsin again? Was it time to consider a change? His energy faded with every step up to his apartment. He didn’t meet Skye again and frowned. He wondered how someone so sweet and pretty ended up married to a dirt bag like Riley.

  Wait. Since when did he start thinking of Skye that way? Sure she was attractive, but still… He locked his apartment door and hung up his coat. The place was a sauna now and he tweaked the thermostat down to a more reasonable level. It amazed him how dark the living room was with the sliding doors boarded up. He flipped on lights and went to the bedrooms. They were steaming too, but he suspected with the draft still coming in, that it would cool off to a more comfortable temp soon.

  ~*~

  Two days later, Dan walked into a small room at the Waukesha County Jail to meet with Riley O’Connell. He sat and waited for the man, hopefully now sober, to be brought to him.

  The man who came in was unkempt and stunk. He slumped in the seat across the table and the guard remained close.

  “Whatd’ya want?” Riley demanded.

  “I wanted to tell you I forgive you,” Dan said. His heart raced at the venom shooting from the man’s eyes, but he slowed his breathing to keep calm.

  “Forgive me? You’ll drop the charges?”

  “No. Consequences are not erased because of my choice to not seek personal justice. Riley, you don’t need to live this way. Jesus loves you. God has a better plan for your life.”

  “Blah, blah, blah. Another goody-two-shoes. No wonder Skye’s taking up with you. A shiny new toy. But she’s not into religion, so don’t expect her to put up with that. It won’t be long before she comes running back to me.”

  Dan raised his eyebrows and one corner of his mouth twitched. “I can’t imagine how a woman like her ever chose you to begin with.”

  Riley frowned as if he wasn’t sure whether he had been complimented or insulted. He must have decided on the former. “Well, she knew a good thing when she had it. She’ll be back.”

  “Why do you hate her so much?” Dan asked.

  “I don’t hate her. I love her.”

  “A man who loves a woman treats her as if she were a precious treasure. He takes care of her. He knows what she loves and what her dreams are and works to help her reach them. He delights in making her happy…not afraid. A well-loved woman would not divorce a husband who has treated her well and has invested wisely in his marriage.”

  Dan imagined a piece of metal inside the man across from him, twisting. Tighter and tighter. Compressed and—

  The man’s hand pounded on the table as he leapt to his feet and started for Dan, fists clenched. Dan forced himself to sit still. He was certain he could defend himself if he needed to but wasn’t going to give Riley the satisfaction of thinking he’d been scared by this show of force. Before Dan could react, the guard stepped forward and yanked Riley back and out of the room.

  Riley hadn’t spoken another word, and Dan wondered at that. The man was all hot air and overinflated arrogance. So why so silent?

  Dan rose and left. Riley was God’s responsibility, not his. Not anymore.

  ~*~

&
nbsp; Skye dashed out the door the minute Dan reached the top of the stairs.

  “Good afternoon,” Dan said as he withdrew his keys from his pocket.

  “What church?”

  Dan frowned. “Excuse me?”

  “What church do you work for?”

  “Orchard Hill.”

  “If I go, what will happen?” Her fingers were wrapped up in her flannel shirt hem, twisting the material back and forth.

  “I’m not sure what you’re asking. Lightning isn’t going to strike you for entering the building.”

  “I’ve rarely been to church. What’s it like?”

  Dan nodded. Interesting. “You would walk in with your children and be greeted by people who will be glad to direct you to our children’s ministry. There you would check your kids into classrooms with cheerful and safe workers who had police reports run on them to be able to serve you. After that, you would go to our sanctuary, a big room with a stage and lots of seats. They will give you a bulletin telling you about what the service will be like, and what’s going on at church. You would find a seat and listen to and possibly sing with the worship team, and listen to the teaching from God’s word.”

  “And then?”

  “When it’s over you go get your kids. If you want to meet with people and grab a cup of coffee, you can do that too.”

  “With my two kids with me, it’s hard to connect with others.”

  Dan nodded. “You can go home when it’s all done.”

  “I don’t need to stand up and be noticed?”

  “No, but we do shake hands with people around us at one point.”

  “I won’t be asked to come down front?”

  “You can after the service if you want someone to pray for you. But that’s up to you.”

  “What time is the service?”

  Dan told her the service times. “What brought this on?”

  She looked at him, wide-eyed and mouth agape. “You had something to do with this, didn’t you?”