by JR Thompson
“Brock,” Titus asked as they were heading out the door, “is it okay if I hang out here at the church for a bit? I’d like to try what the pastor suggested. To pray out loud where I know nobody’s gonna hear me.”
Brock looked at Victoria to try to read her brain waves. She smiled and nodded in the affirmative.
“Sure, bud. Lock up when you’re finished,” Brock told him.
Victoria was thrilled. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one God had spoken to through Pastor O’Malley’s sermon. Between the lesson and Titus’s obedience to it, she found inspiration and told Brock she planned on locking herself in their room as soon as they walked in the door so she could pray as well.
Inside, she did just that. “Dear God,” she began, “I love You and I’m sorry I don’t spend enough time with You. You’ve brought us through some difficult times. You’ve put us in a great area. Yes, there are problems here, but there are problems everywhere. I’m thankful for the gift of salvation. Thankful for a husband and a teenage boy. Thankful for the sensational family I was brought up in.”
Victoria continued speaking with God for at least fifteen minutes before Brock interrupted her by beating on the door. “THE APARTMENT COMPLEX ON THE CORNER IS ON FIRE!” he yelled. “I’m going to get Scottie and we’re going to try to aid in its extinguishment. Call 9-1-1!”
By the time she was on her feet, Victoria heard the front door slam. She peered out the window and sure enough, smoke was pouring from the small apartment building.
In somewhat of a panic, she dialed 9-1-1 and reported the fire. Once the dispatcher assured her emergency vehicles were in route, she bolted out the door to see if she could join her husband and son in their endeavors. By the time she arrived at the scene, three firetrucks were already pulling up with their lights flashing and sirens blaring.
Titus arrived shortly after Victoria did. Upon hearing all of the commotion, he said he had run to the parsonage. Finding it empty, he had rushed over to the apartment to see how he could help. The fire chief quickly ordered all of the civilians to get out of the way so no one would get injured.
Victoria watched as the firemen began stretching their hoses and dousing the flames. She prayed no one was stuck inside and for the families to be well taken care of. More than anything, she prayed that the children living there wouldn’t be scarred for life.
“FIRE!” someone shouted.
Well, duh! Victoria scoffed. Is that supposed to be funny?
“FIRE!” he shouted again. “The church. It’s on fire!”
The church? Victoria turned around. Sure enough, a cloud of black smoke was coming from the church house.
Brock bolted toward Central Baptist and Titus ran right behind him.
Victoria dropped to her knees and called out to God. “Lord, please don’t take away our church! Please help them put it out. Oh, God. I don’t know why this is happening, but please, please do something! Not the church. Please, not the church!”
Wiping the tears from her face, she tried not to think about the spectacle she was making of herself. “God, I know I’ve been going about this whole thing the wrong way. I’ve been taking matters into my own hands. Going behind my husband’s back and snooping around trying to figure out who’s responsible for everything that’s been going on. What has happened to my faith? Why haven’t I just allowed things to rest in your lap? God, you know who has been causing havoc in Farmington. You’ve been watching every step he’s been making. I’ve been so foolish. God, please forgive me for not letting you take care of it. This thing with the church is the final straw. I can’t take any more. I’m through with detective work. I’m ready for You to show us Your power. God, I am asking You through the power of the blood of Your Son Jesus… either let that guilty person get busted or convince him to turn himself in. Please don’t allow anyone else to be hurt by this maniac. Please God! Please show this town your favor!”
✽ ✽ ✽
Before additional emergency vehicles could make it to the scene, Brock and Titus hooked up garden hoses and began trying to spray the church down. Within minutes Pastor O’Malley, Steve, and Ericka showed up with five-gallon buckets.
“Let’s start a chain,” Brock hollered, running toward the spigot on the side of his house. “Throw me a bucket!”
Brock filled a pail of water and gave it to Steve, who handed it off to Titus, who passed it to Ericka, who threw it on the fire and then tossed the bucket back toward Brock. Bucket after bucket they did all they could to get the fire under control before emergency vehicles pulled up to the scene.
As soon as the firemen took over, Ericka broke down in tears. “I can’t believe this! Grandpa’s church? How could this happen? Churches aren’t supposed to catch fire.”
Impulsively, Titus opened his arms, inviting her to lean on him while she was falling apart. Still crying, she took a step toward him and stopped. “Titus, why did this happen? Why would God let His house be engulfed?”
“I don’t know,” Titus answered, taking another step toward Ericka.
“Don’t touch me.”
Titus looked offended. “I wasn’t trying to be forward.”
“I know. Just please… don’t touch me,” she asserted.
36: Brutal Honesty
“Wow! You guys are getting this up in record time. Lookin’ great!” Ericka exclaimed after Steve dropped her off at the construction site. “You did all of this in the last week? Amazing!”
“Thanks, Brock replied. Can I aid you with something?”
“Well…” Ericka hesitated. “Is it okay if I talk to Titus alone for a bit?”
Brock smirked. “Sure.”
“Can we go for a stroll, Titus?”
“My pleasure,” he replied, surprised at the difference in the way the girl of his dreams was speaking to him.
For the first few minutes, the two walked in complete silence. Then Ericka got up her nerve. “Titus, I’ve been studying my Bible a lot this week. I was reading where it says I’m supposed to forgive a brother if he asks forgiveness. I have been treating you horribly. You’ve apologized to me over and over again. You’ve even humbled yourself so much as to get down on your knees and beg my forgiveness, and I’ve basically ignored you—”
“It’s okay,” Titus told her. “No hard feelings.”
“Please let me finish,” Ericka said as she began to cry. “I accused you of not behaving in a very Christian-like manner… that was true. You weren’t. But neither was I and I’m sorry.”
Titus didn’t know what to say or how to act. All he had wanted was for his own apology to be accepted. To be provided another chance. Not to have her apologize to him. That was slightly awkward. “Don’t worry about it,” he told her.
“Can you forgive me?”
Titus smiled. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
“Right… You and I both know I treated you wrong. Can you forgive me?”
“Alright,” Titus chuckled. “I forgive you already.”
“Thanks.”
“So was it simply reading your Bible that changed your mind about me?”
“I didn’t say I’ve changed my mind about you. Just that I forgive you and I realize I was wrong as well.”
“So… you’re still not willing to be friends or to even consider the possibility of ever being more than friends with me?”
“I didn’t say that either.”
“Ericka, you’re confusing me. What do you mean, then?”
“It’s like this, Titus. You were honest with me. You confessed your faults and asked me to forgive you. That’s a wonderful thing! I appreciate it greatly. One thing I can’t stand is a liar. Any relationship that’s built on anything less than trust is a relationship that won’t last. So you took a giant step in the right direction by saying you were sorry. But for now… I need more time.”
“More time for what?”
“I don’t know. Just more time. That’s all.”
Titus pondered for a moment and t
hen stopped in his tracks. “Ericka, you’re right about the whole honesty thing, and I need to tell you some things about me that you don’t know. I’m not the nicest guy out there. I make a lot of poor choices.”
“I’ve seen that,” Ericka agreed.
“You’ve witnessed a little maybe, but I’m worse than you’d ever guess I am. I’ve done some pretty awful things.”
“Like?” Ericka asked.
“Promise not to hate me?”
“As long as you’re truthful and you’re learning from those bad choices and aren’t going to repeat them, I won’t hold anything against you. You have my word.”
“Okay,” Titus replied, taking a deep breath. “Here goes... I… um… well, a while back I made a bet with Remington. If I won, he had to sneak out with me one night, and we were going to see what we could get into. And… well, I won.”
Ericka paused for a second. With a faint smile, she asked, “What’d you bet on?”
Titus snickered for a second. “Whether or not Scottie would get paddled that day.”
Ericka’s smile broadened a bit. “And he did?”
“Well, he wouldn’t have, but I… I kinda cheated.”
Ericka’s eyes widened like she didn’t know what to think. “Cheated, how?”
“I… uh… led Brock to believe Scottie had thrown a temper tantrum. When he wasn’t watching, I threw a bucket of nails around and told him Scottie did it out of anger.”
The smile drained from Ericka’s face. “And Scottie accepted a whipping without arguing about it?”
“No! He tried to argue, but Brock didn’t believe him.” Titus paused and smiled mischievously. “He paddled him for throwing a temper tantrum, again for denying his actions, and a third time for accusing me.”
“And you allowed that without telling the truth?”
“I did and I know it was wrong.”
“You bet it was. You were a real lamebrain. Have you ever apologized to Scottie?”
“No.”
“Are you going to?”
Titus slipped his thumbs in his pockets. “I don’t know. It’s in the past.”
“In the past? I bet he’d disagree with you on that one. That’s awful!... Okay… so tell me the rest of the story. Did Remington really sneak out with you?”
“Believe it or not, yeah, he did.”
“Titus! Really? So you made one boy get a spanking he didn’t deserve and then you talked another boy into sneaking around at night? What’s wrong with you?”
Titus was no longer showing amusement on his face. “I don’t know what I was thinking… but it’s worse. Remington and I got some beer and—”
“Titus, I don’t want to hear any more of this,” Ericka interrupted.
“You promised not to hold anything against me as long as I’m being honest and promising I’m learning from it, right?”
“Yes, I promised, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear it.”
“I need to get everything out in the open. I don’t want to build a relationship on anything other than trust,” Titus insisted.
“Okay… so you got some beer,” Erick sighed. “Then what happened?”
“Remmy had an allergic reaction to it and his throat started closin’ off. I just knew he was gonna die. But a nurse stopped by and she took care of him.”
“And you nor Remmy ever told anybody about this?”
“Nope. Remmy wanted to fess up, but I manipulated him a bit. I told him Collin’s not ready to hear about something this bad and it’d probably send him over the edge. I told Remmy I wouldn’t want him to feel guilty if something terrible happens to his dad because he shocks him with that kind of news.”
“That is terrible. Titus, I can’t believe you would stoop so low… but I promised. I’m not going to hold it against you. But I do suggest you come clean with the adults about what you’ve been up to.”
“You don’t understand,” Titus contorted, kicking a gravel.
“Understand what?”
Titus smiled. “Never mind.”
“No, tell me. What?”
Titus smiled and gained some extra color in his face.
“Tell me already. What do I not understand?”
“So… remember when I came to your place real early that morning a week or two ago?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“I didn’t have permission to leave the house. When I got home, Brock threatened to paddle me.”
“To paddle you? No way!”
“Yes way. Can you believe that? I’m seventeen and I’m not even his kid. We got in this deep, uncomfortable conversation about it. He told me his grandpa whipped him for drinking, of all things, when he was nineteen. He insisted I’m not too old for a spanking and that I better follow his rules or else.”
Ericka couldn’t contain herself. She giggled.
Titus grinned uncomfortably. “You find that funny?”
“Well, kinda. Don’t you?”
“Don’t I?... Find it funny that a man wants to take a paddle to me when I’m nearly an adult? No, I don’t think that’s funny.”
“Not even a little?” she teased.
“Not at all,” Titus insisted, not the least bit amused.
“Look, I agree with you. I can’t imagine my parents whipping me or my brother at our ages. But… the fact of the matter is, you are living with the Pearsons. You ran away from your folks because you didn’t like their rules and didn’t want to accept their consequences, right?”
“Yeah, but this is totally different.”
“No it’s not, Titus. When people develop habits of denying their wrongs, hiding them, or running away from the consequences of their actions, it not only affects them but everyone around them. If you continue going down the same road you’re on, I’m afraid it’s only going to further convince me you’re not the right guy.”
“So, you want me to tell Brock what I did, knowing he might actually spank me like some kind of a little brat?”
“What do you think?” Ericka asked.
“I would say that’s absurd.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Ericka replied, turning back toward the construction site.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Just that. It would be nice if you could see it a different way.”
“What if I promise to take it into consideration?”
“Titus, pondering it is marvelous, but I’d rather you pray about it.”
“Okay. I’ll think and pray about it.”
“Perfect!” Ericka said, grinning.
Titus knew it was bad timing, but he couldn’t help himself. “Would you be interested in rejoining the work crew? It would be a lot easier to tell you my answer if we could talk about it in person.”
Ericka laughed. “I was wondering when you were going to invite me.”
When they arrived back at the building site, Remington was there working alongside Brock. Well, he wasn’t exactly working. Neither one of them were. Remington was in the middle of telling Brock he hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before. His dad had kept him and his mom up all night long. If he wasn’t accusing them of trying to poison him, he was claiming bad guys were lurking about in their yard.
“I know I’m not supposed to invite myself places, but Titus, could you invite me to spend the night at your house?”
Ericka giggled. “Remmy, don’t you know Titus is a bit older than you?”
“It doesn’t matter. I need to get some rest and I can’t get any at my house.”
Titus glanced over at Brock who silently mouthed, “Go for it.”
“Remmy, do you think your folks would let you spend the night at our house tonight?”
“Thanks!!! I’ll ask them when they come to pick me up in a little while.”
37: Uncle Brad
Wow! Collin said to himself, pulling up to the site. These guys are speed demons. I can’t believe how quickly this place is goin’ up. By the time he killed the engine, Reming
ton was at his door. “Ready to go, bud?”
“Uh… Dad?”
“Son?”
“Titus invited me to spend the night at his house. Can I?”
“First of all, where are the steel-toed boots your mother and I bought for you? You can’t wear tennis shoes to a work site.”
“I know, Dad. Sorry… but, please, can I spend the night at Titus’s house?”
“Titus invited you? You’re sure you didn’t invite yourself?”
“No, in all actuality he did invite me. You can ask him!”
“I don’t know, Remmy.”
“Please, Dad. I’ll be on my best behavior. I promise.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. Titus is a lot older than you. Scottie’s already been a horrible influence. I don’t know that it’s such a wise idea.”
Remington paused and tried to present the saddest puppy dog eyes he knew how to muster. “But it’ll allow you and Mom some alone time.”
“Nice try, bud. But I’m gonna have to say no this time.”
Remington cast his eyes toward the ground and slowly spun around to face Brock. “Sorry, guys. Dad says I can’t come over.”
“Get in the car, boy. It’s time to head to the house,” Collin insisted.
Remmy moped to the passenger side and got in.
“What’s wrong? Why so gloomy?”
“Dad, can I be really honest with you?” Remington asked.
“You know you can,” Collin agreed, turning the car around.
“I… um… I’m not comfortable living at home anymore.”
Collin chuckled nervously. “With your own family? Why not?”
“Dad… you know why. You always feel like somebody’s trying to do us wrong. You accuse me and Mom of being out to get you. You claim Scottie burned down the shoe store. You say bad guys are spying on us. You’re fearful the human traffickers have followed us to Farmington. You pulled a gun on Brock a couple of weeks ago. I just… don’t feel safe right now.”