Catching Kate (Scenic Route to Paradise)

by Andrea Aarons

  Only Junior remained angry with Zeff. Merry and Mac sensed that God had a hand in it although, Kate’s kidnapping and rescue had caused them heartache and worry. Tino was sure that Yosef’s plans for the Serendipity would have progressed even if Kate wasn’t part of the loot but they had driven them off and rescued Kate to boot.

  Zeff was the angel of his family... The goody two-shoes and for them that made him “the black sheep,” as he had confided in Kate. The Zeferanos were involved in both legal and illegal financial ventures but Zeff was interested in neither. Although, he had participated in an abundance of wicked activities over the years, in comparison to his brothers, his uncles and many of the family associates... Zeff felt he was a good boy. Traveling on the Serendipity with these Christians and the recent incident with Kate, caused Zeff to understand his true depravity.

  Coming abreast of Ascension Island, Zeff realized that it would be at least two more weeks before he saw Kate again. The plan was for the Serendipity to meet and to pick her up at Cape Verde. He had written and rewritten several letters of apology, explaining how he planned to make it up to her. Each letter was modified until Zeff realized that he could blame no other but himself for his behavior. He wanted his letter to be perfect when he handed it to her at Cape Verde.

  Jealousy and his unrestrained imagination tormented Zeff as he thought about Kate spending two - now over three weeks with Roger Cowels. He wanted what Mac had with Merry; Zeff was fully convinced, he could have that... He could have real love and a real marriage with Merry’s sister, Kate.

  What Zeff failed to understand was that his desire for Kate and the life that he wanted was to be founded on a spiritual base... A tree will not grow or bear fruit; much less remain standing if there is no root.

  The Zeferano’s physical roots reached back to the crossing of the Red Sea but Zeff’s personal spiritual germination continued as a dried seed, with no root and no sprout - dormant.

  Very soon, Zeff would need to make a choice: Believe that Jesus came as Messiah like history proclaimed or not. He must choose for Jesus who died and rose the third day because if not embracing the truth, Zeff would believe the lie. Antichrist was alive and busy setting the stage to deceive those who rejected the genuine Christ. Scripture calls this final deception, a snare that will catch the earth dwellers unaware - taking them captive.

  Chapter 21 Catch and Release

  Merry came away from the ship-to-shore radio. Rhetorically, she asked Mac, who was sitting in the salon with a recently acquired sailors’ atlas before him, “You heard that? Kate and Roger are getting married!”

  Throwing his hands behind his head to rest on his interlocking fingers, Mac looked at her. He said, “Remember the pirates? I told you then that it seems God does nothing without purpose and I could not put my finger on the reason for the breach in His protective wall about us. Remember?”

  Merry leaned against the galley table, tears beginning to pool in her gold-brown eyes. She nodded.

  “I meant it when I said that I would eventually discover the reason for the breach... the mishap,” he told her. He added with a smirk, “I said then that when I figured it out I would say, ‘Aha... So that is what God was up to!’ Remember?”

  Merry nodded again as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue. Wearing a brave smile, she sniffled, “You mean, Kate and Roger? That was the reason God allowed the pirates aboard and Kate’s abduction? She was caught by them only to be released into Roger’s arms?”

  Mac’s smile was wide and white as he pushed off from the settee and approached Merry. He gave her forehead a wisp of a kiss and then said, “Aha... So that is what God was up to!”

  Epilogue

  Merry finally got through to her mother, Toni Merriweather on D’Almata! The cell reception had never been superior on the tiny island of D’Almata in the Adriatic. Now with the recent turmoil in the world but especially in the United States, the reception was absolutely prehistoric... according to Merry.

  Her mother was relieved of course to hear Merry’s voice and to hear about her other daughter, Kate but Toni had already been apprised of the well being of her daughters and also of Mac and the sloop they sailed, the Serendipity. Some of Mac’s messages and calls had gotten through to D’Almata over the last few weeks, apparently.

  Toni’s response was concise. “Merry, tell Mac to come in the backdoor. Your brother Dale is in trouble.”

  The backdoor? D’Almata’s backdoor! Merry remembered hearing the phrase before. But as she listened, her mother’s voice began to fade. Toni’s few words were disrupted and then... nothing, nada, zip. The connection was dead.

  Desperado Dale

  (Book #3 ~ Scenic Route to Paradise Series)

  Dale stood six foot two, eyes of blue, five o’clock shadow - three days new. His hair, normally cut short to the extreme had grown out during this trip abroad. The tight but large curls lay about his 30 year old head like a blonde shag carpet with a perm.

  The trip had been a well earned vacation after several weeks of 16 -18 hour days freelancing predominantly computer geek work. He had understood from the conception of the trip that his holiday - three weeks abroad with his wife and daughter wouldn’t be all rest and relaxation. Dale was in charge of escorting his grandparents to D’Almata for his mother’s wedding.

  Toni Merriweather had been widowed almost three years and she was remarrying. Her parents, Dale’s grandparents couldn’t travel alone... not together, not separately and not at the mature age of 90 and 88 years. So Dale had volunteered.

  The trip had been swell up until the third day. They had spent two days in Britain visiting a college chum of his but the third day... On the third day they arrived in France. Minutes after they checked into their hôtel with their televisions on, all hell broke loose behind them in the states. Earthquakes, terrorism and heartache came streaming descriptively across the flat screen for days on end.

  Also on day three but not quite as severe as the news of America under fire from man and God or so it seemed to Dale, was his grandfather’s incessant and vocal complaints about the French.

  Two months of Grandpa’s criticism of everything French and as fate would have it - only Grandpa spoke French fluently. Of course, now they were inGreece! Dale spoke a smidgen of Greek although after being married to a second generation American-Greek for almost a decade, he understood much. Still, his wife, Anna spoke Greek but Grandpa didn’t! Hallelujah!

  Dale was the last passenger to disembark the puddle jumper of a plane that had brought them to this Greek island. Anna had gone on ahead with their daughter, Gwyneth and with Dale’s grandparents to pick up the rental car.

  The airport was an international one although very old and small. Dale looked around and was reminded of the tiny national airports in Africa from his childhood. He was the eldest child of missionaries and Dale had spent half of his life in southern African countries. He had learned a lot in Africa; how to love God, and how to live and survive while doing so.

  He was relieved to have France behind them and thinking of Africa, Dale smiled to himself as he pulled his cell phone from his front pocket. He needed to call Anna and let her know he found Grandma’s carry-on bag. It hadn’t been stolen after all. He planned to tell her, he would be joining them in a matter of minutes as he had just been waved through the arrival security check at customs. He had just slung Grandma’s pale pink bag over his left shoulder when he heard... overheard a security clerk say to another, something about the American with the pink bag. Dale’s Greek was not fluent and apparently, the security team thought that he was like the majority of Americans - knowing no Greek. Glancing over his shoulder, Dale examined the men he had overheard. The two were no longer looking at him; they were signaling across the short terminal. Dale swiveled his head but the smile, turned sneer continued on his lips as he picked up his pace. Two more guards, thick muscular mean men unlike the wimpy looking customs clerks were not a hundred yards from him and sprinting his way.

 
Dale rushed forward in long strides pushing through a large travel group preparing to depart. They hadn’t gone through security yet but they were the perfect confused diversion he needed. On the other side of the crowd, still running but bent over, stooped in hopes that the security men would lose sight of him as he dodged into the second of three darkened hallways. He pushed the second door on the right and it opened. What luck he thought but then he realized it was the women’s bathroom. The plaque on the door was one indicator but the black stockings and heeled shoes seen under the first stall was the real give-away. Too late, Dale continued to the last stall. Locking the door, he scanned his hide-a-way space before climbing atop the commode.

  Not two minutes later, Anna’s phone rang.

  “Anna!” whispered Dale. “Listen! Get the car and drive to your cousins. Get out of the airport as fast as you can.” Anna sputtered and tried to talk but Dale spoke over her. “Something’s wrong. Don’t wait for me. Get to your cousins and I’ll call you later. Understand?” When she said “Yes,” he hung up and turned his phone off.

  The black stocking lady had exited the bathroom and afterward, three men burst in with weapons drawn. Dale was not about to be arrested on this island, Greek or no.

  Besides, there was obviously a misunderstanding.

  What did security want with him? They had said something about his pink bag... It was actually, his grandmother’s carry-on. Was it him they wanted or the bag or something else? Now, they were just a few feet from discovering him. Dale knew the locked stall door would buy him mere seconds - a minute at the most.

  He hadn’t prayed. Was it too late? Dale mouthed a silent prayer and miraculously an idea came to him. Dale now had a plan and if God had given him the plan, as he surmised he wouldn’t get arrested - not this time. Later? Dale would cross that bridge when it appeared on his radar...