So Help Me God

by Larry D. Thompson

  The mother in Joanna cried "No." Ultimately, the logic of her sister's argument won her over. Besides, she could drive the five hours to Fort Worth to be with Lucy most weekends.

  Jessie immediately called Anita Jimenez, her housekeeper of thirty years, and told her to rearrange the sun room to make it a suitable bedroom for Lucy. French doors opened from the downstairs study to a thirty by thirty-foot room with floor to ceiling windows on three sides and double French doors opened to a patio and garden. The room was filled with cushioned wicker furniture. The view of the patio and garden was spectacular, and beyond the garden was the green expanse of Rivercrest Country Club. The room faced west, catching the late afternoon sun and reflecting it onto bookcases filled with crystal glassware and what Jessie called her knickknacks from the four corners of the world.

  Jessie told Anita to get the gardeners to store some of the wicker furniture, bring a bed from upstairs, raid her daughter's former room to fill the bed with stuffed animals and put pictures on the walls that would please a girl of seventeen. She also had the gardeners build a ramp to the patio doors for Lucy's wheelchair.

  Anita met Jessie and Lucy at Dallas Love Field and the three women drove the forty-five minutes to Fort Worth. It was a warm, bright March day in North Texas, a day when spring was doing its best to shove winter aside. Anita and Jessie talked while Lucy silently looked out the window. Arriving at the house, Anita wheeled Lucy to the side entrance and up the ramp to the sun room. Opening the door, she proudly displayed her work.

  "So, how you like this, Lucy?" Anita exclaimed, obviously pleased with the transformation. "The best room in the house, just for you."

  "Why, Anita, this is perfect," Jessie replied.

  Lucy said nothing.

  The room still had a wicker couch and two wicker chairs along with the bookcases full of Jessie's prized possessions. It now contained a double bed almost hidden by stuffed animals, a night stand with a bell, telephone and TV remote control, a large television, and a small refrigerator, loaded with bottled water, fruit juice and various soft drinks.

  "Lucy, what do you think?" Jessie asked.

  Lucy stared off into space and finally replied, "It's okay."

  "Lucy, when you're in bed, you have your own remote for the television. You can use that bell to get my attention, or Anita's," Jessie added. "If that doesn't work, the telephone is on a separate line and you can call the main phone number. It will ring on the other phones in the house and out in Anita's apartment over the garage. You know where the bathroom is and either of us will help you when it's necessary. I've got a physical therapist lined up to start with you tomorrow. She'll take up where they left off in Houston. Anita and I will assist her however we can." She smiled as she concluded, "It won't be very long before you'll be up and around and on your own again."

  The therapists worked with Lucy twice a day to strengthen her muscles. It worked as planned. Only Lucy's mind did not respond. Lucy went through the motions with the therapists. When they left, Lucy got out of bed only to get in her wheelchair. Anita brought her meals and tried to engage her in conversation. All she got were responses of "Yes, ma'am," "No, ma'am," and "Thank you." When the therapists were not there, Lucy spent her time watching cartoons or sitting alone on the patio.

  After a few weeks, one of the therapists told Jessie that there was nothing to prevent Lucy from walking. Jessie considered telling Lucy that therapy was over. If she wanted to eat, she would have to walk to the dining room to join them. If she wanted to go to the bathroom, it was right there. Then Jessie reminded herself of what Lucy had been through and that she had almost died.

  Instead, she decided that she would get Lucy out of the house. There was plenty to see and do in Fort Worth. They started their daily expeditions with a visit to the zoo and followed with almost daily excursions to the Botanical Gardens, the art museums, and the tourist areas of the old Cowtown stockyards. On Saturdays they went to Jessie's ranch, where Lucy's parents often joined them. On most Sundays they drove from the ranch to The City of Miracles to attend church.

  CHAPTER 22

  As the weeks went by, T. J. began to notice the girl in the wheelchair sitting beside Jessie each Sunday. When he made discreet inquiries and learned that Jessie was her aunt, he looked for an opportunity to learn more about the girl and found it one evening at sunset.

  T. J. appeared on the nineteenth floor as he usually did. There was no sound until his reflection appeared in the window. Jessie was no longer surprised to see him. In fact, she actually enjoyed his company, although she had yet to figure out how much of him was real and how much was showmanship. This time before he had a chance to speak, she said, "Welcome, T. J. You know where the glasses are. It looks like we're in for a spectacular sunset and I'm pleased to share it with you."

  T. J. did as he was told and returned with a glass and ice, helping himself to bourbon from a flask bigger than the one that Jessie had first carried. They sipped their drinks and enjoyed the sunset until T. J. broke the silence. "Tell me about your niece, Jessie."

  Jessie stalled for a few moments, not sure where to begin or how much to tell. After a moment's reflection, she decided that the man beside her was a minister and he might as well hear it all. "Well, to start, she's the daughter of my sister in Texas City. She's seventeen and she had an abortion. We learned in the hospital that she had been raped, but by then it was too late to do anything about the assault."

  "Did she tell anyone about the rape?"

  "No, T. J., she kept it quiet. I better give you a little family history that may help you understand Lucy. My sister calls herself Joanna. That wasn't her birth name. Our parents named her Abigail; Abigail Addison. She's eight years younger than me. I was already in Fort Worth, married to Warren, when she was entering puberty. I heard from some friends back in Texas City that my little sister was becoming a hell raiser. Turns out she was smoking at twelve, drinking beer behind a neighbor's garage at thirteen and lost her virginity to the first boy that tried after she turned fourteen. I tried to talk to her only she wouldn't listen. My friends told me she drank and screwed her way through high school. The boys in her senior class appreciated her so much that they voted her most popular girl."

  "Jessie," T. J. interrupted with an astonished voice and a gleam in his eye, "did Lucy follow in her footsteps?"

  "Heavens, no!

  "I'm not near through. After she graduated from high school, Joanna became a born-again Christian. You'll like this story. A high school buddy wanted to get laid and took her out for a sunset sail on Galveston Bay. After they made love, he promptly fell asleep. Sometime, T. J., after we know each other a little better, maybe you can explain why men seem to associate sex and sleep. Anyway, as Joanna told me later, while her lover slept, she lay nude on the deck and started counting stars as they filled the night. As she studied the heavens she began to realize that the universe couldn't be an accident. There had to be a greater power to have created all that she saw above her. Like that she was a Christian and I can tell you that no greater believer walks the planet than my sister."

  "What about her name, Jessie?"

  "Ah, yes. Her name. You remember in the Book of Luke, Jesus healed some women of 'evil spirits.' They were called Mary, Joanna and Susanna. Joanna went to church the day after her re-birth and was given a Bible by the minister. That afternoon she discovered the story in Luke and tried each of the names in front of the mirror in her room. She settled on Joanna and never let anyone call her Abigail again.

  "That fall she got a job in one of the plants and met Bo. They married, bought a little three bedroom house and Lucy's brother, Junior came along. Lucy was born a few years later."

  "Sorry, Jessie. I'm still confused. What does this have to do with Lucy's rape and abortion?"

  "T. J., just bear with me. Lucy's mother became the most fundamentalist Christian you ever saw. It wasn't that she was a poor mother. She was a very good mother. However, when you combine her misspent youth wit
h an Evangelical Christian, you get a mother that did more preaching than listening. Lucy told me later that when she was raped and even when she found out she was pregnant, she couldn't tell her mother for fear that she would be forced to confess in front of the congregation, and her mother would make her carry the baby--something she wasn't ready to do at seventeen."

  "What about her dad? A lot of girls have strong bonds with their fathers."

  "Bo's a good man. He's like thousands of fathers in South Texas, maybe all over the country. He's always been faithful to Joanna. He brings home a steady paycheck as a supervisor in his plant. He coached Junior in Little League. His passion is the outdoors. He wants to be hunting dove, duck and deer in the right seasons. Otherwise, he's got a twenty-two foot Boston Whaler that he takes to Galveston Bay nearly every weekend. You know what a Boston Whaler is, T. J.?"

  "No, Ma'am. They must not have had them out on Eagle Mountain Lake when I was growing up."

  "It's a fishing boat. Pretty much the Cadillac of fishing boats from what I understand. Most houses in Texas City have one of those and a pick-up in the driveway. Anyway, Bo's attitude has always been that he'll put a roof over his family's head and give them three squares a day, and it's up to Joanna to raise Lucy. You understanding now why Lucy didn't talk much to her parents?"

  "I'm beginning to, Jessie. Tell me what happened."

  "First, let me make it clear that what I'm telling you is coming from Lucy. She's told me bits and pieces and we'll probably never get the whole story. She met this boy, Jason, at the start of the school year at her church's Sunday evening youth fellowship. Some place to meet a rapist, huh, T. J.?"

  "Now, Jessie, God gave ample quantities of testosterone to most men. Even us Christians sometimes have trouble controlling it," he said with a grin.

  The grin took Jessie aback since she considered this to be a most serious conversation. Frowning at T. J.'s grin, she continued. "Jason chased her for weeks. He hung around outside her classes at school and began to walk her home from the youth fellowship on Sunday evening. Then he got her into his truck for some mild petting until one Sunday evening when it was raining so hard that he talked her into waiting in the church parking lot until the storm passed. That's when he assaulted her. According to Lucy, he only barely got it in before he ejaculated down her leg. You can imagine how hard I had to work to get her to tell me that much."

  "Once it happened she wanted to tell her mother but was scared to do so. Bo probably would have gone after the boy with a shotgun. Anyway, she kept it to herself and a few weeks later found that she was pregnant. She called Population Planning in Houston and arranged for an abortion on a Friday teachers work day. The abortion went bad and she almost died. The doctors in Houston saved her life."

  It took Jessie nearly an hour and a refill of each of their drinks to tell the whole story. She concluded with her frustration about a girl who remained so emotionally scarred that she had no interest in walking or anything else that life had to offer.

  "What about the young man, Jessie?"

  "All I know is his name is Jason. Nothing else." Jessie's jaw clinched, "but, I can guarantee you that if I ever get him in my sights, one bullet will be enough."

  Startled by the anger in her voice, T. J. took her hand and beckoned her to kneel with him, facing the disappearing sun and saying, "Let us pray. Lord God, first we want to give You thanks for bringing Lucy back this far. Like the chances You have given me, she has an opportunity for a second life. Her parents and her aunt have exhausted their abilities and Lucy has yet to be completely healed. We need Your help and Your guidance, Father. Help her find emotional peace so that she may get on with her life. Grant her that peace, dear God, and soothe the anger in her aunt's heart. Amen."

  "Amen," echoed Jessie, as they rose to their feet.

  CHAPTER 23

  The conversation about Lucy's rape and her mother's wild youth was too much for T. J. to handle. "Jessie, let's go up one floor to my penthouse. I doubt it you've ever seen it. I have a great balcony and an even better selection of red wines."

  Jessie hesitated as her mind quickly ran through the implications of such an offer. Finally, she concluded that it was merely an invitation for another drink from a friend and accepted. T. J. led her to an oak paneled wall with no door. She was about to say something when he pushed on the panel that opened to reveal a spiral stairway to the next floor. T. J. stepped aside and motioned her to lead the way. The stairs were illuminated by a soft blue light. At the top Jessie pushed on a panel and it opened into T. J.'s penthouse. The sofas were gold; the drapes were gold; the chandelier was gold; the carpet was gold. The lights were dim and Frank Sinatra crooned from hidden speakers.

  "I hope you like Sinatra, Jessie. He was my favorite before I took my long sleep."

  "Give me him or Tony Bennett and I won't complain, Jessie replied, "although I have taken a liking to Jimmy Buffet in recent years."

  Almost before she finished the sentence My Way became Cheeseburger in Paradise. Jessie smiled as T. J. sorted through his rack full of red wines and settled on a Shiraz from California's central coast. He picked two large wine glasses and filled them to the brim. Handing one to Jessie, he escorted her out to his balcony that faced west.

  "Would you look at that, T. J.?" Jessie said as she leaned over the balcony. "Every star seems to be shining just for the occupants of this balcony. Just think. Those are the same stars that led to my sisters re-birth nearly thirty years ago."

  She sipped the red wine as she contemplated what would happen to her sister and her family. T. J. sat his glass on the iron rail and turned her to face him. As he leaned forward to kiss her, Jessie pushed him away.

  "No, T. J. I know that your testosterone has gone untapped for twelve years, but I won't be the one to turn the spigot. I assume that you find me to be an attractive woman, even at my age. Still, I had a husband that no one can replace and I'll stay faithful to him until I see him up where those stars are shining."

  "Forgive me, Jessie," T. J. replied. "I got carried away by the spirits and the moment. I value your friendship. Have a seat and let's talk about something different, like your ranch that I understand is not too far out there in the distance."

  "Apology accepted, T. J. Let me tell you about the ranch."

  After they finished their wine, T. J. went with Jessie down the elevator to the garage and walked with her to her Jaguar, blessing her for the sacrifice she had made for her niece. As Jessie drove away, a plan started to evolve in T. J.'s ever-fertile mind. He could use Lucy as the centerpiece of another miracle, a very important one at that, because she almost died from an abortion.

  CHAPTER 24

  In the months since T. J. had returned to his ministry, things could not have gone better. The money kept rolling in, and his television ratings demonstrated that he once again had become one of the top three televangelists in the country.

  During this election year, the presidential candidates were quizzed about their stand on abortion at almost every campaign stop. Even congressional candidates were not immune to litmus test questions. The religious right condemned abortion. If a candidate would not support their belief that abortion anywhere, anytime, any place and under any circumstance was wrong, he or she could depend on the religious right to attack with a vengeance not seen since Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple.

  Unfortunately for The Chosen, his long absence from the political arena put him out on the fringe of many of the fundamentalist political causes and his Right Side political action committee was not nearly as rich or as effective as he demanded. He needed something to focus national attention on him. The more he studied the issues of the religious right the more he realized that abortion generated more heat, anger and debate than nearly all other issues combined. If he could make abortion his personal mission, it would serve to catapult him back to the forefront of the religious conservatives where he belonged. Although he had not completed his plan, it must begin with
national attention converging on him as he healed Lucy. Of course, he could not discuss any of this with Mrs. Warren Woolsey. While a rich woman, she was also a person who valued her privacy. She would not permit her niece to be used, no matter how noble the purpose.

  Two weeks later, T. J. crafted a sermon on the power of God, ending it with God's power to heal. As was his custom, he waited backstage until the assistant pastors had made announcements and warmed up the audience. The Miracle Singers followed them. Their songs and music were intended to entertain and to get the faithful on their feet. If a few danced in the aisles, so much the better. The formula had been tested. Jerry Abraham had not invented it. He had only improved on it. The Chosen came close to perfecting it. After the offering buckets were passed, there was time for one more song before T. J. made his appearance. After the singing there was silence. Followed by darkness. Then, a red spotlight directed the audience's attention to the upper stage where The Chosen stood on a circular platform, apparently suspended in mid-air, dressed in his white robe with the gold braid sash, the light flashing from his dark sunglasses. He raised his hands and the audience began to cheer. The platform, still bathed in the spotlight, began to descend through the darkness until it stopped at the back of the stage where The Chosen stepped down and slowly walked to the pulpit. With the power of God as his message, he launched into an oratory that lasted thirty minutes before he turned to God's ability to heal all of man's illnesses. As he touched on various maladies and infirmities, he held up first one hand and then the other, counting them off on his fingers, with the tenth finger reserved for healing the lame and crippled. As he finished the ten, he walked toward the Governors' Circle. A white spotlight shined on Jessie and Lucy. At first Jessie was uncertain about what was happening. Then she started shaking her head. T. J. ignored her as he approached.