by T. K. Chapin
She looked uncomfortable with the notion. “Are you in trouble?”
“No, he is my ex from over a year ago. His calling is random and out of the blue. I gotta get going.”
“Okay. Have a good time singing. Break a leg, or whatever they say to singers.”
“Thanks.” I tipped a smile.
Leaving the inn, I got in my car and paused for a moment. Letting out a stressed sigh, I looked at the sky above the inn and the lake behind it. What was Victor doing? Was he trying to torture me? I was finally feeling okay after the heartbreak he inflicted on me. Bowing my head, I wiped a few stray tears that were brought on by the stir of emotions that welled up from hearing his name again.
“God, I don’t know why he called, but You do. You know what’s going on and You know how important this upcoming festival is. Can You please strike him dead? I mean, can You please make him go away? I can’t be distracted right now, and he will only distract me. Please help.”
Turning the key over, I headed to Newport to stop by the store before going to the church. On the drive, Victor still plagued my thoughts. How’d he know I was staying at the inn? Why was he calling me? Thinking of the upcoming festival and the work that the Lord was doing, I knew it had to be the work of Satan. A distraction to throw me off balance, an outright attack on me.
Stopping in at the grocery store, I picked up the cookies that Serenah needed for tomorrow, then proceeded to the church.
Arriving at the church building, I glanced down the hallway and saw James’s back toward me at the end of the hallway as he was cleaning. A part of me wanted to go talk to him, to see his face again, but then I decided not to. I had specifically requested to be alone, and I should stick with what I said.
Going into the sanctuary, I took to the stage with my folder of music. On the music stand, there was a note from James. Smiling as I picked it up, I read it.
There’s a mini-fridge full of water behind the stage
if you become parched from all that angel-like singing.
~ James
Lifting my gaze to the back of the sanctuary, I smiled. Seeing him through the window as he walked by, I hurried off the stage and out to see him. Arriving in the foyer, I saw him dusting with ear buds in each ear. Walking up to him, I tapped his shoulder.
He removed his ear buds and turned around, smiling as he looked at me.
Chapter 18 - James
“THANK YOU FOR THE NOTE.” Her warm smile was like sunshine after a summer rain, welcoming and joyous to my heart. I had left the note to test her feelings for me, to see if there was anything there between us like I felt there was. I was right. I smiled back at her, just standing there for a moment before things just about got awkward.
“Oh, yeah, no problem. I get parched when I sing so I figured you might too.”
“I do. You sing?”
I shrugged. “A little bit.”
Turning toward the sanctuary for a moment and then back to me, she tilted her head. “Do you want to come over to the inn tomorrow?”
I raised an eyebrow at her forwardness. “Sure. What for?”
“It’s this game night thing Charlie and Serenah are putting on.” She paused, touching her lip with her finger. “Wait, I don’t know if I can invite you.”
Raising a hand, I said, “It’s fine. I don’t want to intrude.”
Faith reached out and touched my arm with her hand, stopping me from leaving her in the foyer. She smelled of a sweet fragrance of fruits and flowers. Her touch was soft, gentle. I hadn’t felt the touch of a woman in so long, and I liked it. Crashing waves of shock rippled through me. I loved the feeling of her fingers as they met my skin.
“It’s not intrusion.” She paused a moment. “I will ask Charlie and Serenah and let you know?”
“Okay.”
She smiled, then turned toward the sanctuary. “Great. I’d better get to practicing.”
As she returned to the sanctuary, she left me smiling. I didn’t know much about her, but the little I did, I was liking. As I continued cleaning that evening, I thought about the possibility of an us. I wondered about her past, her likes, her dislikes. I wondered if a gal like that could ever fall for a guy with a checkered past like mine.
Later that night, at about two o’clock in the morning, a frantic knock came on the church’s front doors.
Startled, I walked over to the doors and opened them.
It was Alex.
He was in that same dirty hooded sweatshirt from earlier that day when I saw him in Newport. His eyes were swollen and red.
Pushing open the door, I let him inside the foyer.
“Man, I’m freaking out. That cop Brody is out looking for me! I don’t know what to do!”
“Slow down, Alex.” I grabbed hold of his shoulder. “What happened?”
“Someone broke into Mikey’s shop and stole a bunch of rims. They think it’s me! And I didn’t do it!”
“Well, it’s no big deal. I’m not sure why you’re freaking out.”
“When he showed up to Joe’s house in his sheriff’s car, I was high so I split out the back and ran.”
“What? Why? You know how guilty that makes you look?”
Suddenly, Faith walked out into the foyer from the sanctuary. Alex and I stopped talking and looked over at her.
“What? Did I interrupt something?”
Shaking his head, Alex took a step back. “No. Not at all.”
“This is Alex, an old friend of mine. He just needed to talk.”
“Oh, okay. Sorry. I just came to see if everything was okay.”
“We’re good.” I nodded to her. She paused shortly before smiling awkwardly and leaving back into the sanctuary.
As the door shut, Alex pushed my shoulder, jolting my body to face him. “What do I do, dude? I don’t want to go back to jail or prison!”
“Just calm down. You have to explain to Brody what was going on.”
“I can’t tell a cop I was high! Are you crazy? That guy is adamantly against drugs!”
“You can’t run from this. They’ll think you stole those rims. It’s way less severe if you tell the truth about just being high.”
“Don’t you get it? I’m on probation and drug court. I can’t get caught being high.”
Unsure of what to do, I looked him over. He didn’t appear high. “Are you high right now?”
He shook his head. “No. That was hours ago. I’ve been wandering the streets.”
I pulled out my car keys. “Here. Take my keys and go to my house. We’ll figure this out later. Just crash with me tonight. You remember where my parents’ house is?”
“Yeah.”
“Drive straight there.” Handing him the keys, I paused. “Be careful.”
“You can trust me. Thanks, brother.” He took the keys and then hugged me tightly.
Watching as he went out the doors of the church, I shook my head as stress crashed against my heart like a wave in a storm out at sea. I didn’t like the idea of him driving my car or crashing at my house, but it wasn’t about me. It was about being there for an old friend in a time of need and showing him God’s love.
Returning to my tasks at hand, I prayed for the situation. I needed God to show me how to help Alex, what words to say, what actions to take.
A little bit later, as I was finishing putting everything away in the janitor’s closet, Faith approached me in the hallway.
“Hey. Everything okay with your friend?”
I nodded. “It will be. Alex is in a tough spot right now. Hey, do me a favor and don’t tell Charlie about what happened tonight. I’ll tell him.”
“It’s not any of my business, so I wouldn’t.”
She appeared almost defensive about it. I felt bad. “Sorry, I just want to cover my bases. You’ll let me know about game night still, right?”
“Yes.”
“All right, cool. I’d better get walking home.”
“Do you want a ride?”
“I co
uldn’t do that to you. It’s not very far, and the fresh air would be nice.”
She shook her head. “I insist. Please?”
I couldn’t resist those sparkling, gentle blue eyes. “Okay. You talked me into it.”
She laughed. “That didn’t take much convincing.”
As we walked together down the hall, my worry and nervousness about Alex melted away. I liked the way I felt around her. The way she carried herself was peaceful and calming to me. It reminded me a lot of my mother. My mom had a way of just walking into a room and bringing a sense of calm no matter what was going on in it. Faith was becoming more important to my life, moment by moment.
Chapter 19 - Faith
MY HEART RACED AS JAMES buckled his seat belt in the passenger seat. As he adjusted his feet, one of his shoes bumped against the bag of cookies. He lifted the bag of sugary delights into his lap.
“You have a soft spot for cookies, eh?”
My lips curled into a grin. “Not quite. It’s for tomorrow night’s game night. I guess Kirk likes them?”
He nodded. “I’m not sure how that dude maintains that physique eating this kind of stuff. Did you know he used to be a bodyguard?”
“Oh, wow. Really?” Hearing that made me immediately think about Victor and how he had called the inn. “That’s always nice to have someone around the church like that. He can keep people safe.” My memory recalled James’s sharp rebuke about not needing to worry about situations, and I continued. “You know, in the off chance it were to happen, he could resolve a situation.”
I pulled out of the parking lot and started down the street. A desire to learn more about his past surfaced within me, and I glanced over at him for a moment, then back at the road. “Serenah told me you went to seminary a while back?”
He looked over, a big ole’ grin on his face. “You were talking about me to Serenah?”
“Yeah. A little bit. But only because she asked about how my first night went. Had to tell her I almost pepper sprayed someone.”
We both laughed.
“Yes, I went to seminary for a while, a long time ago. I dropped out because of some personal stuff, but I did learn quite a bit there.”
“I see. You know, I thought more about what you said about the enemy within, and it was spot on. Did you learn about that in seminary?”
He shook his head. “No, I learned that from . . . life experience.”
A part of me wanted to press in on those personal matters and life experience, but I withheld from doing so. He would’ve shared the information if he cared to tell me at that moment. I needed to be patient and let things naturally flow.
Pulling into his driveway, I parked behind his car.
“We have arrived at your destination, sir. Thank you for traveling with us.”
Lightly laughing, he looked at me. “How much do I owe you for the ride, ma’am? The service and company were superb.”
We lightly laughed, and I smiled.
Grabbing his car door, he opened it and then turned toward me after undoing his seatbelt. “Thanks again for the ride.”
“It’s been a pleasure.”
He glanced through the windshield toward his house for a moment and his smile fell away, replaced with a grimace. “Can you please make sure to keep my friend Alex in your prayers? He’s hurting, and he really needs to surrender to Jesus.”
Looking at James and hearing his heart and faith spill out through his words, I felt for him. “You can count on me.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you around, Faith.”
He got out of the car and walked up to his front door as I reversed out of the driveway.
As I drove down the street toward the inn, I couldn’t get James out of my mind, and I didn’t want to either. He was the man of God I’d always desired to see in Victor but never had. He was, thus far, everything I had hoped for in a man. I just hoped the image I was seeing wasn’t different from the real James.
While I went through my evening routine of getting ready for bed, I prayed earnestly for wisdom in the matter of not only my feelings and potential relationship with James, but in the matter of Victor too. Serenah had left a note saying he had called again while I had been at the church that night. As I thought of the possibility of a future relationship with James, I became worried about Victor being an issue that wouldn’t simply go away.
Sitting up in my bed a half hour after I had laid down to sleep, I turned on the lamp on the nightstand. Picking up my phone, I texted Victor to see if he was awake. I knew he had horrible insomnia so there was a chance he wasn’t asleep.
He replied that he was, so I called.
“What do you want, Victor?”
“That’s no way to greet me after so long, babe.”
“I’m not your babe. I haven’t been for a long time. What do you want? Why are you trying to get ahold of me?”
“I wanted to see if you wanna go grab some dinner.”
“What? Really?”
“I’ve just been thinking about us and how things ended. I feel bad.”
“Okay. Well, that was quite a while ago, and I don’t want to have dinner or anything, for that matter, with you.”
“Hmm. I guess you moved on from us.”
“Yes, Victor. I moved on a long time ago. I suggest you do the same.”
He let out a sigh. “Okay. Do you ever think about us? Like what life would be like if things would’ve worked out?”
Touching my forehead as I peered at the red numbers on the alarm clock reading 4:10 AM, I sighed. “Honestly, yes. I’ve thought about it, but that was a long time ago, and I gave it to God. Things happen. People change.”
“Do you regret it? Like you just wasted your time with me?”
“I regret giving a part of myself to you, but as far as the time together, I see it as just a life lesson.”
“I was just a lesson? Okay.” He paused and then said, “I’ve re-committed myself to God. I am a changed and new man. Can’t we just have one dinner? Doesn’t having been engaged to you give me at least a single meal?”
“I’m glad to hear you’re doing better. I truly am, Victor, but I can’t. I don’t see how one meal would do anything.”
“Just pray about it?”
“Okay, fine, I’ll pray about it. I have to get to sleep.”
I hung up with Victor and sat there for a moment as I mulled over the conversation. I felt resistant to seeing him again. I couldn’t see how a dinner would do anything, especially since I had no desire to marry him or be in a relationship with him again. Lifting a prayer up to God, I asked Him to show me what to do. Turning off the lamp, I snuggled up under the covers and fell fast asleep.
Chapter 20 - James
THE NEXT MORNING, I made breakfast for Alex and myself. Bacon, eggs and toast. As the bacon sizzled in the pan in the kitchen, Alex arose from the couch and walked into the kitchen with one eye still shut and a plaid checkered blanket over his shoulders.
“What are you doing at this ungodly hour?”
I laughed. “It’s eleven o’clock in the morning. Time to wake up. Grab some coffee and have a seat at the table. Your plate is about ready.”
He shuffled his steps over to the coffee pot on the counter. Pouring a cup, he turned to me. “You saved me last night. Thank you for that.”
“It was all Jesus. Any good I have is Him within me. Are you going to make it right today with Brody?”
Taking his cup over to the kitchen table, he sat down. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll make it right. Hey, can I crash here tonight too?”
I flipped the bacon and walked over to the kitchen table. Another night wouldn’t hurt, but I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. “You don’t want to go home?”
“Man, it’s nothing but bad memories there. How am I going to get clean going home? Many of the drug connections I have visit me daily.”
I quickly pulled out a seat at the table and sat directly across from him. “You’re quitting drugs?”
He
nodded slowly, bring his cup to his lips. Taking a drink, he set the cup back down. “I’m tired of being unhappy, man. I look at you and I just see this perfect person who doesn’t struggle with anything in life. I want that.”
My heart warmed at hearing his words. They were an answered prayer I had been praying for years. “I do have struggles, but I have more joy than struggle. You see, Alex, we all have a God-size hole in our hearts and nothing in this world can ever fill it. Not a person, not a possession, and definitely not a drug. I had to learn that.”
“Last night really changed my view on God, man. You walked the talk you preach to people. You were there for me in a big way, and I didn’t deserve it.”
“God was there for you, Alex. I’m merely a tool.” I stood up and hugged him.
“Okay, James.” He squirmed out of the hug. “Too sappy. Back up off me.”
“I’m sorry for getting all soft, but it’s amazing you are done with the drugs, man.”
“I have to be done. I don’t see any other way out of this pain unless I kill myself, and that’s not an option.”
“Good. That should never be an option.”
Smelling the bacon on its way to burning, I quickly went and pulled it out of the pan. Setting it onto a paper towel atop a plate beside the stovetop, I pulled the plate of eggs and toast out from the warm oven.
“Time to break the fast.”
As I brought the food over to the table, my cell phone on the counter rang.
Grabbing it, I saw it was Pastor Charlie. My heart flinched seeing his name on the caller ID. For a second, I worried Faith had told him about Alex. Shaking my head, I dismissed it. She wouldn’t do that.
“I’ll be right back. I gotta take this.”
I went into the living room to take the call.
“Is there anything you want to tell me?” Charlie’s voice was littered with concern and he pressed further. “I was in my devotional time with God and received a nudge in my spirit to give you a ring. Everything okay?”
Speechless, I was quiet. Charlie asked again if I was okay.
“I’m fine. I want you to trust me, so I’ll just tell you what’s going on. Alex came by the church last night in a bind, and I gave him my keys and sent him to my house. I’m going to help him. Give him my coat, so to speak. Hospitality. It’s in the Bible.”