Twist of Faith
Kelly A. Purcell
Copyright 2013 Kelly A. Purcell
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Photo © Oscar Williams (www.Dreamstime.com)
Scripture used in this book has been taken from the King James Version.
Prologue
“Lights out!”
The bright stream of lights overhead went out with a quick hum, and silence ensued. The dripping of the broken sink next to their bunk seemed to have grown louder in the quiet, a prisoner’s lullaby. James folded his arms behind his head to further cushion the lumpy pillow, looking up at the mattress over him; he could make out the other guy’s shape on the bed by the way the rusted springs bent around his frame. It would not be long again, before he would sit up against the wall and start muttering to himself as he had been doing for the past few nights.
“Heavenly father, thank you, thank you for forgiving me, thank you God…”
James closed his eyes, listening to every word, as he had started doing since the night before. He was a quiet young man with a calm gait and bright eyes; in a place like this, people noticed.
“Lord watch over Mike tonight, and Nicole and Alex and Sherry… you are my God, you call me your child, I know that you care about my family.…”
James’ eyes shot open as he heard the papers flitter to the ground, he noticed that the praying had stopped, and from the shape in the mattress, that his cell mate was moving. He removed his make shift light from below his pillow and flicked it on, so he could see the papers scattered on the floor. He picked them up and curiously looked them over; he could hear him holding his breath above him.
“Who is the girl?” James asked, looking intently at the tiny picture that had fallen with the papers.
“My sister,” he replied, his tone unreadable.
“Pretty girl. That’s who you pray for?”
The shape in the mattress shifted, “Not just her.”
James lifted the papers to him, holding them up until he had pulled them from his fingers, “you spelled redemption wrong,” he said.
“Thanks, I’ll look it up.”
The silence enveloped them again. James did not like it.
“You really believe in this Jesus thing nuh?”
He did not respond immediately, the pause so long James thought he would never respond to him, then he said, “more than I ever thought I would.”
“Why?”
There was another dramatic pause.
“Because even while I lived I was dead, and then I heard that pastor that comes every week talk about this man who is able to give me life. Jesus who is all man and all God, suffered a cruel death so that I wouldn’t have to, I just knew it was true. Now I know that I am truly alive, because I knew what it was to be dead, to be empty, to have no regard for my life or anyone else’s.”
James pursed his lips, folding his arms behind his head again.
“What would you do if you found out that you were dying?” his cell mate asked.
James sighed, twisting his lips, “I’d try to find a way to live, and if not make peace with those I hurt,” he replied.
“Jesus said in Matthew chapter ten and verse thirty-nine that whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What do you think about that?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
There was a moment of silence again, James squirmed in his bed, there was a wayward spring poking him in the back. He looked at the shape in the mattress above him.
“Tell me about your family.”
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