The Wild One

by Vanessa Miller

  Her cell phone rang. Dee Dee normally didn’t answer her phone when she was on the highway. People drove like maniacs and would rather mow you down, than move over to another lane. So she vigilantly watched each driver. She let the phone ring, figuring that the caller would simply leave a voicemail. But after ringing four times, the phone went silent and then began ringing again. That happened three times, and then Dee Dee decided that it might be too important to ignore.

  She hit the phone button, and as she put the phone to her ear, she said, “What’s up?”

  “Why did you let that man spend the night?” asked the ominous voice on the other end of the phone.

  “What? Who is this?”

  “I thought you were mommy material, but if you could let another man spend the night in front of our little girl… Well, maybe you don’t deserve to have Natua.”

  “How did you get my number? Why are you bothering us?”

  “Why wouldn’t your husband have your number?”

  Okay, Dee Dee might have been married more times than the average person, but she hadn’t been married so many times that she’d forgotten how any of her previous husbands sounded over the phone. “You are not my husband and I am hanging up.”

  “Hang up if you want, but you’ll never see Natua again.”

  Dee Dee had hit the end button as she heard the last of his sentence. She tried to call the man back because now she wanted to talk to him. Why on earth was he so fixated on Natua? His phone rang numerous times, but he didn’t answer. Getting that frantic feeling that she’d experienced this morning when Natua wasn’t in her bedroom, Dee Dee pulled off the highway and called Drake.

  When he answered, she screamed, “Drake, where’s Natua?”

  “Calm down, Dee. Natua is fine. I just dropped her off at her daycare.”

  “Go back and get her!”

  “I’m on my way to work. What’s got you so upset?”

  “That man called me. He says that I won’t see Natua again.”

  “What?” Drake was on high alert now. “What exactly did he say?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t remember his exact words. I was hanging up on him when he said something about, if I hang up, I won’t see Natua again. Please go get her.”

  “I’m on my way back to the daycare now. I’ll take her back to the house.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you there, when I’m done with my meeting.”

  Hesitation on the other end and then Drake said, “We’ll see you when you get home.”

  When Dee Dee hung up, she looked at her watch. It was 10:45 and she was only about ten minutes away from the restaurant. If she got back on the highway now, she could make it to her meeting on time. And maybe after helping Michael Mavs to see the light, she would get the part that she wanted. But as she pulled her car back onto the street, she found herself bypassing the highway that would take her to Santa Monica and instead, going the opposite direction, back to Los Angeles…back home.

  All thoughts of her career went out of her mind. Natua was in danger and Dee Dee would rather die than let anything happen to that little girl. She sped down the highway, doing something she hadn’t done in a long time…praying. She asked God to protect Natua, to keep her safe and allow Drake to get to her before this madman who had been stalking them got to her.

  Drake’s car was in the driveway when she finally made it home. She pulled up behind his car and jumped out. She ran into the house screaming for Natua just as she’d done earlier that morning. Dee Dee felt as if she were playing a part in that old movie, Groundhog Day, where she kept doing the same thing over and over again. Please let this nightmare of a day end already.

  Drake came into view at the top of the stairs. “We’re up here.”

  “Natua’s with you?” she asked, as she made her way up the stairs.

  “Yes, I’ve got her. I’m glad you’re home. Now I don’t have to pack your bag for you.” He walked back into Natua’s room and continued throwing clothes into her suitcase.

  “Why are you packing? Where are we going?” Dee Dee asked, as she picked up Natua and kissed the little girl.

  “We’re going on an adventure, right, Daddy?" Natua said.

  “That’s right,” Drake answered Natua, and then turned to Dee Dee. “I’ve booked us on a flight to Atlanta. We’re going to spend the weekend at your father’s ranch.”

  Dee Dee put Natua down and then threw her hands up. Same ole Drake. When the chips were down, if he wasn’t running to God in prayer, he was running to Joel Morrison so he could help him pray. “We don’t need my father,” she protested. “Why can’t we just stay here and handle this ourselves?” She was still perturbed with her father, and really didn’t need to see him at this moment.

  “I called the police, and they suggested that we leave town for a few days. Someone is going to be monitoring the house for us.”

  She calmed down as she thought of the reason the police would need to monitor her house. “So, they really think he’s going to come back to the house.”

  “Since he let himself in once, they think that it is a great possibility, especially since he’s agitated by my presence.”

  “Yeah, but if we leave, he won’t have a reason to come to the house.”

  “He won’t know that we’re not here. I called Carlotta. She’s going to smuggle us out of the house by way of the garage and her minivan.”

  Carlotta was their maid. She came to the house four days a week. “I guess you’ve thought of everything,” she said, as her shoulders slumped. She turned to walk into her room.

  Drake grabbed her arm and moved closer to her. “If you don’t want to go to your father’s, I can cancel those tickets and fly us anywhere you want to go.”

  She looked into his eyes, and for the first time in a long while, she saw the man she'd fallen in love with, a man who loved her so much that he’d turn heaven and earth upside down to do her bidding. She’d fallen for that man and had thought she could deal with his love for God. But as time had passed, it had proven to be too much for her. “It’s all right, Drake. I haven’t seen my father in months, and he’s not getting any younger. I’ll go pack and be ready by the time Carlotta gets here.”

  Chapter Four

  Feeling like an immigrant hiding out in Arizona, Dee Dee, Natua and Drake crouched down in the back of Carlotta’s minivan as she smuggled them out of the garage. Carlotta told them that she didn’t notice anyone following as she dropped them at the airport. But Dee Dee wasn’t satisfied with Carlotta’s assessment. She kept looking around as they walked through the airport. She couldn’t relax, not even when they were on the plane thousands of feet in the air—she just kept looking around, imagining the worst of every man who glanced her way.

  “Stop worrying. You and Natua are with me and you’re safe.”

  Drake’s Bible was in his lap. Dee Dee remembered sitting with him in the evenings while he read. Getting "the Word" in his system everyday had been so all-important to Drake. Dee Dee had done her best to distract him and take his mind off of that Bible, but nothing she did worked, and finally she'd just stopped trying. “We’re running from a stalker, and you are reading that Bible like it’s a normal day.”

  “I personally think there are only two times when we should read the Bible—when we’re in trouble, and when everything seems okay.”

  “So, in other words, you think people should read the Bible all the time,” Dee Dee said, with an incredulous look on her face.

  “Absolutely.”

  “What are you reading, Daddy?” Natua asked while yawning and snuggling up to him.

  “I’m reading about the Great Commission.”

  “What’s that?”

  “After Jesus died and then rose from the grave, he met with his disciples and told them this...” Drake turned to his Bible and began to read from Mark, chapter 16:15. “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be damned.”

  Thinking he was getting in a teachable moment, Drake smiled as he turned back to Natua. She was asleep.

  “I guess that Bible bores her too,” Dee Dee said, as she burst out laughing.

  “Laugh if you want. But it is because of this scripture that I publish Christian books. I believe that the books I publish are a method of preaching the gospel. The next phase of my ministry will be to produce films that deliver God’s message.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Not at all. God has given me this ability, and I’m going to use it for His glory.”

  “Drake, don’t go into the movie business. You don’t know what you’re doing. People want R-rated movies these days, so they certainly aren’t going to pay for some God movie.”

  “Tell that to Mel Gibson when he was directing The Last Temptation of Christ.”

  “And how’d that work for him. The man’s life is a mess.”

  “But no one can take the credit for that movie away from him.”

  Putting on her headphones, Dee Dee turned to the television, encased in the headrest in front of her seat, and began searching for a movie. Drake turned back to his Bible and the two rode in silence while Natua slept.

  Joel’s butler/assistant picked them up at the airport. Dee Dee found herself searching the Atlanta airport for would-be stalkers as she held Natua close to her side. It was not until she reached her father’s home that she felt safe and able to relax. Dee Dee had always felt safe in her father’s house. She hugged him like she hadn’t done in a long time. “I’m so happy to see you, Daddy.”

  “I’m happy to see you, too. When Drake told me what was going on, I prayed that he could get you and Natua here safely.”

  “You knew I wouldn’t let you down,” Drake said, as he came up behind them.

  They sat down in the family room and began catching up on each other’s lives. After about an hour of talking, Joel asked his daughter if she had contacted his accountant about setting up any funds yet.

  Without hesitation, Dee Dee admitted, “I haven’t contacted him yet, Daddy. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t really feeling you, when it came to giving all that money away. But after this guy started stalking us, I changed my mind.”

  “How so?” Joel asked.

  “Well, for one thing, while we were on the airplane, I thought about how easy it was for us to just pick up and leave. But there are so many women who don’t have the means to get out of bad situations. So, I think I want to start a foundation to help women and children, maybe build a few safe houses and provide funds for the women to rebuild their lives.”

  “I think that’s an excellent idea,” Drake said, beaming at his wife for thinking of others even while in the midst of her own horrible ordeal.

  “I agree with Drake, I think you’ve come up with an excellent idea. Every other day on the news, they show some woman being attacked or killed. Good for you, Dee Dee. This will be a legacy you can be proud of.”

  “Speaking of the news.” Dee Dee pointed at the 64-inch flat screen. “Can you please turn that off? I have been boycotting the news ever since Newt Gingrich called President Obama the most successful food-stamp president in modern history. I refuse to watch the news again until fathead Newt’s presidential aspirations are over.”

  “I didn’t appreciate what he said either, but the Republican Party still stands for a lot that I believe in,” Joel said.

  “Spoken like a true uninformed Republican,” Dee Dee said.

  “Well, I’m an Independent, without allegiance to either party," Drake said with conviction. "I’m interested in the issues, policies and civil discourse.”

  “Since we have a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent in the same room," Joel said, "I will turn the news off in order to keep the peace.” He looked around for his remote, and not finding it, he stood up and walked over to the television.

  Before he hit the power-off button, Dee Dee held up her hands and said, “Wait a minute, Dad. What’s this all about?”

  CNN flashed a billboard that said, "Judgment Day, May 21, 2011." Then a reporter interviewed a few people who indicated that a radio host by the name of Harold Camping told them that the world would come to an end on May 21st at six in the evening.

  Joel turned the television off.

  “Turn it back on, Daddy. Didn’t you hear them? They're talking about the end of the world,” Dee Dee said, frantically.

  “Honey, you can’t worry about things like that,” Joel said, as he sat back down. “The Bible tells us that no man knows the day or the hour when the rapture will occur.”

  She turned the television back on and listened while the story continued. When the news reporter went on to another topic, Dee Dee turned back to her father. “Those people are spending all their money. They’ve stopped paying their bills.”

  Drake shook his head. “It’s sad how people can be so deceived.”

  “Deceived? How are they being deceived? That man told them that the world, as we know it, will end on May 21st. You don’t know for sure that the world won’t end tomorrow.”

  Drake went to his wife and put his arms around her, trying to bring her comfort. “I believe God’s word over some man I’ve never met. And besides, this man also predicted that the world would end back in the nineties, and nothing happened then either.”

  Dee Dee pushed Drake’s arm away. “Are you telling me that you knew about this?”

  “Knew about what?”

  “About this man claiming that the world would end this weekend?”

  “I didn’t see a need to mention this May 21st judgment-day thing. It’s really not a big deal.”

  “Not a big deal? Not a big deal?” Dee Dee shouted the words, as she rushed past Joel and Drake, and ran out back toward her father’s stables.

  ***

  When Dee Dee was younger, she would always come out to the stables if she needed to be alone or think about something. There were five horses in the stable, one for each of Joel’s children. Thankfully, his children didn’t visit him all at the same time or there wouldn’t be enough horses to go around since all of his five children had significant others…well, all but Isaiah and Shawn. Isaiah’s no-good wife was divorcing him, and Shawn’s long-time girlfriend had finally gotten fed up with his cheating ways and left him.

  She saddled her horse and jumped on. It didn’t matter to Dee Dee that she was wearing a pair a five-hundred-dollar slacks that weren’t made for horseback riding. She needed to get away and think—the last thing on her mind were her pants. Not when the rapture was at hand.

  Her father’s land was miles and miles of greenery. Dee Dee had always thought of the place as beautiful and majestic. And the world was so full of tragedies—flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, wild fires and tsunamis had become all-too-frequent occurrences of late.

  As she jostled along, riding her horse like a woman bent on escape, Dee Dee thought about her life. A life full of self-gratification. It was all about her. Whatever Dee Dee wanted, she got. She’d been married four times and hadn’t found a way to be happy yet. Even the fame she’d received from her career hadn’t been enough. She needed more.

  Tears flowed down her face and drifted off into the wind as she realized that she had wasted her life wanting this or that, rather than being happy with what she had. She slowed the horse to a trot and then stopped it. Jumping off, she tied the horse to a pine tree and then sat down on the grass next to her horse. She couldn’t stop the current of tears that were long overdue, because Dee Dee knew exactly why she was crying like a two-year-old who had been denied a favorite toy.

  Her father had told his children about the rapture countless times when they were growing up. He’d warned them so many times about the necessity of accepting Christ into their lives so that they wouldn’t be left behind. He’d told the story so often that even Dee Dee believed this thing called the rapture would, indeed, happen. But it had taken so long that she’d stopped thi
nking about it, and simply lived her life. Now with this man saying that the end would come on Saturday, Dee Dee had to face the fact that she was not ready. And she doubted that she could get ready within a day’s time.

  Her father was ready. Her husband was ready. Natua was just a small child, and Drake had been teaching her about God, so as far as Dee Dee was concerned, Natua was ready. She was the only one who’d be left behind. The thought of that didn’t sit well with Dee Dee. Drake had brought her to her father’s house, so that she could feel safe, but right now, Dee Dee was full of more fear than she had ever known. She would take a stalker any day over the rapture.

  Years ago, Dee Dee had read the novel, Left Behind. In that book, the rapture came at a time when everyone was just going about their lives, doing whatever they pleased and then all of a sudden, people just disappeared. What if she were sitting at the table eating dinner with her family tomorrow, and then their forks dropped on their plates as they disappeared and left her alone.

  Did she want to be alone? Or did she want to go with her family? For so long, Dee Dee hadn’t wanted anything to do with God or his rules of morality. She had lived a life of excess without apology. Was she now expected to grovel and beg the almighty to forgive her?

  Wiping her face, Dee Dee looked heavenward and said, “My father says that no man knows the day that you will return, and if that is true, then this man who is claiming the judgment day will be tomorrow has to be wrong…right?”

  She waited a moment, hoping that for the first time in her life, she would actually hear the voice of God. However, she didn’t hear anything but the wind softly blowing.

  She tried again. “I don’t want the rapture to come tomorrow. I’m not ready and You know that I’m not.”