by Dynah Zale
Mecca stared in disbelief. If she didn’t know any better she would have thought this entire scene was scripted. Garrett led the choir for two full verses before signaling for the band to quiet down to a light melody.
“Church, I’ve come this morning with a testimony.” Like a snake charmer Garrett had the ability to captivate any audience.
“I love the Lord.” The church responded back to Garrett with screams of “Amen!” He turned towards the pastor, “I’m sorry, I realize that this isn’t a part of the service, but I felt like I had to come up here and get something off my chest.” Garrett paused.
Mecca wondered if this was another campaign strategy thought up by Sawyer to garner more votes. She had never seen Garrett this excited about God before. She listened intently to his words for some sincerity, but there was none.
“I’m sure everyone here is well aware that I am running for mayor, but what you don’t know is that God brought me here this morning as a testimony. I am not afraid to tell you that for so many years I’ve been attending this church as a spectator. I’ve never been an usher, never sat on any boards. I’ve never volunteered for any of the bake sales or taught one Sunday school class. But this morning when I woke up, I could feel God tapping me on the shoulder.” Garrett imitated a tapping sound with the microphone he held in his hand. “I could hear Him telling me that now was my time. Now you know I immediately thought he meant that I was going to be elected mayor in November.” Everyone chuckled at his humor, “But God said ‘no’. It’s time for you to submit to me.”
The crowd cheered. Garrett turned towards Reverend Tomlin, “Rev, would you do the honor of introducing me to our Father.”
Reverend Tomlin raced down to meet Garrett in front of the altar, “Brother, it would be my pleasure.”
The two knelt down together to pray that powerful prayer of acceptance.
Chapter 4
“That was quite a show you put on.” God sounded indifferent. Garrett couldn’t tell whether He was upset or not, but he had a sickening feeling that He was upset.
Stalling for time, Garrett ran his fingers through his hair a couple times before finally responding. “I can explain.” He paused. “I don’t know why I did what I did. That call left me on such a high I wanted everyone to celebrate with me.”
“The only problem with what you just said is that those people didn’t come to church to celebrate you; they came to celebrate Me.”
The truth settled into Garrett’s conscience, he hadn’t realized it until that moment that he had tried to steal the moment away from God and put the focus on him.
“Generally, when the doors to my house are opened on Sunday morning I assume that most of the people who enter come to see Me. Pray to Me. Give thanks to Me.”
“Yes Father, that is true.”
“Well, if you knew that then why did you take a moment made for Me and make it about you?”
“I..I..I..” Garrett was speechless. “That was not my intention.” Shame weighed down so heavily on Garrett that he dropped to the ground and groveled at the Lord’s feet, he pleaded for forgiveness.
“Part of the problem was you didn’t regard the church as My house.” God explained. “Garrett, when you visit someone’s home you usually go to see the person who lives there, but you came to my house on numerous occasions and you never saw Me, you never talked to Me, you didn’t even ask for Me. That hurt.” Garrett felt ashamed. He never thought what he was doing inflicted any pain on God.
“Garrett, we just started.” Kiel helped Garrett to his feet. “You might want to get yourself together because you haven’t even seen what is yet to come.”
Overcome, Garrett held on to Kiel then composed himself as they returned to Garrett’s life story.
Chapter 5
Over the loud clamoring of the tambourines and fierce pounding of the drums from the church musicians Reverend Tomlin asked Garrett to repeat after him.
They began the prayer of deliverance together but something stopped Garrett mid-sentence.
***
“You’re unworthy to be one of God’s children.”
***
Garrett heard somebody whispering in his ear. He opened his eyes and looked over both shoulders. They were alone.
“Garrett, are you all right?” Reverend Tomlin asked.
“Yes, pastor. I’m sorry; please continue.”
Reverend Tomlin began again.
***
“God will never accept you, especially after what you did.”
***
Garrett could hear the voice loud and clear. He spun around expecting to catch someone. No one was around. It was just him and the reverend.
“Garrett?” The pastor noticed Garrett’s odd behavior. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
Garrett’s faith was wavering in the wind. The notion of being unworthy began to overtake him. Hundreds of people were watching him. He didn’t know what to do. If he rose up from off that altar an unchanged man, no one would ever believe a word he said again. That kind of decision could ruin his career. So he pushed the doubts aside and ignored the voices in his head.
“Yes sir. I’m sure.” This time Garrett tried to ignore the voices in his head, but he struggled. The voices kept getting louder in his head.
***
Inside the church, a tall beautiful angel stood over Garrett whispering words of discouragement in his ear at the altar.
“Why would you do this to me?” Garrett was confused. “I’m trying to do something I thought you would approve of and you send an angel to let me know I’m not worthy.”
“Garrett, that angel was not from me.” God answered.
Kiel suggested Garrett take a closer look at the angel. Garrett observed the angel carefully. The beautiful cyclone of yellow light spread its’ wings and turned to face Garrett.
“I’m confused. What am I looking for?” Garrett asked.
Kiel took his finger and pointed to the angel’s chest. “See right here.” Instead of having a heart this angel had a glob of black tar that pumped slimy tar through its veins. “On earth angels are part human and part spirit. So we possess some human attributes. What you see is not one of God’s heavenly angels. This is one of Satan’s angel’s.”
But it’s so beautiful.” Garrett always assumed Satan’s angels would look ugly and terrifying.
“We share a close resemblance with hell’s angels because at one time they lived here among us. They served Jehovah just like I do, but because of disobedience they now worship Lucifer. The black tar that pumps through their bodies is sin.”
“Satan shouldn’t be allowed in church?” Garrett complained. “He should be kept out.” He spun around to face God. “Why didn’t you keep him out?”
“Satan and his angels aren’t restricted.” God continued. “They run rampant upon the earth wreaking havoc. As a matter of fact, church is one of the places they often frequent.”
“Church?” Garrett was stunned. “Why church? I would think church would be the last place they want to be.”
“Demons love to play mind games.” Kiel explained. “So if they can get a church congregation to start thinking about anything besides glorifying God, they’ve done their job.”
Garrett snapped his fingers in revelation. “That’s why as I was trying to pray, I kept thinking about one of the worst days in my life.”
One of Garrett’s skeletons stepped out of formation. It stood out so it could clearly be seen, but this was one bone Garrett wanted to keep hidden. This part of his past was too painful – even for him to look at. He diverted his eyes to the floor to avoid looking at a secret he had kept hidden for so long.
“You’re not going to acknowledge this?” Kiel asked.
“Nope.”
“You’ve run from this your whole life,” Kiel spoke with sincerity because he realized how sensitive the situation was. “But you can no longer hide.”
The room fell silent and the moment seemed
to last an eternity.
“Please don’t make me do it?” He cried uncontrollably and snot ran out his nose.
“You’ve held on to this pain long enough.” God grabbed ahold of Garrett’s face and forced him to look at the skeleton. “It’s time you confronted your fears.”
“Please, don’t make me do it. I’ll do anything, but just not this?” Garrett pleaded like a child.
“Fine.” God seemed to easily give in. “If you don’t want to do this then I won’t force you to, but if you don’t do this now, then you’ll never be able to repent and if you don’t repent for it I won’t ever be able to forgive you. If the sins in this part of your life are never washed with the blood of the lamb, you won’t be allowed entrance into heaven.”
Horror filled Garrett’s eyes. He had to make it into heaven. He couldn’t let this opportunity pass him by.
Garrett wiped away his tears, ‘Okay, let’s do it.”
Chapter 6
Garrett snatched an outdated magazine from the coffee table, quickly flipped through it and tossed it back down. He looked around at the marble floors, expensive plush leather sofa chairs and huge forty-seven inch television set.
“What kind of abortion clinic is this? This looks nothing like the clinic I went to with my sister when she got rid of her baby.” Reneé, Garrett’s high school girlfriend crossed her long chocolate brown athletic legs.
“I told you this place only caters to a select few.” Garrett mumbled. “You don’t want everybody knowing about this do you? Here we don’t have to worry about anybody accidentally seeing us because only people who can afford this place will come in. Most people don’t even know abortions are performed here.”
“You’re right about that because I always thought these were a bunch of lawyer offices. I would have never believed what was really here if it weren’t for you…and of course your mother.” Reneé’s sarcastic remark didn’t get by Garrett.
“Don’t start with my mother?” Garrett warned.
***
Garrett’s chest glowed bright red like the lovable creature from outer space E.T. What does that mean?” he asked Kiel.
Kiel smiled, “It means you cared deeply for her.”
“Yes, I did.” Garrett could never hide his feelings for Reneé. She brought something out of him that no other woman could ever do, not even his wife.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen her. She looks just as beautiful as I remembered.” The sight of her lured him closer to the Windows of Heaven. The red glowing light in Garrett’s chest flashed rapidly.
“Be careful.” Kiel cautioned. “I can see that your feelings for her are growing, but this is just a memory flash.” Kiel explained. “God is playing back the images in your mind.”
***
“Garrett, I don’t think I want to do this.” Reneé said.
“Reneé.” Garrett had to be strong for the both of them. “We already discussed this. Now is not the time for us to have a baby. Not only can we not afford it, but we just graduated from high school; we both need to finish college. You said you wanted to be a nurse, you can’t go to nursing school with a baby.”
Reneé’s bottom lip poked out in defiance. “That sounds like your mother talking?”
“Don’t blame my mother.” Aggravated, his eyebrows slanted downward, “She has nothing to do with this.”
“Sure she does. Admit it. Your mother doesn’t want us to have this baby because she doesn’t want a dark skin grand-baby.” Garrett tried to ignore her accusations.
“She thinks that I’m not good enough for you and that if you have a child that is darker than a brown paper bag it could ruin the Dunn family name.”
“Reneé you’re over-exaggerating, again.” Garret made light of her complaints by acting nonchalant.
“Oh! I guess when you introduced me to your parents that was a compliment she gave me. Reneé switched her voice to a Louisiana drawl. “Darling, you’re so pretty to be dark skin,” she mimicked. “That was her subtle way of telling me that she is better than I am because her skin is lighter than mine.”
“My mother has a way with words, she didn’t mean any harm. Sometimes they just come out the wrong way.” Garrett constantly made excuses for his mother’s color struck mentality, but lately it was getting harder to disguise her snide remarks.
Born in Louisiana, Garrett’s mother was raised to believe the lighter you are the better off in life you will be. This kind of thinking was customary on her side of the family. That is why he never reacted to some of the insensitive comments his mother made about Reneé like, “Why did you have to date the darkest girl in school?”
His mother complained for days when she found out he and Reneé were dating. Then, when she found out Reneé was pregnant; she was livid. She refused to have any “Dark skin pickaninnies as grandchildren.” Then came the ultimatum: Either Reneé got an abortion or he would have to start paying his own way. That would mean he would have to immediately move out of his parent’s house, get a job and start paying his own bills.
That threat forced Garrett to see things from his mother’s point of view. He loved Reneé but he wasn’t ready to give up all the luxuries and money his parents provided. They had set him up with an apartment at Princeton University, a car and a generous monthly allowance. That’s why he practically twisted Reneé’s arm to go through with the abortion.
“I wonder what’s taking them so long.” Impatient, Garrett got up and walked over to the water cooler. Once he finished his water he noticed another couple waiting with their baby boy. The toddler climbed down from off his chair and started playing hide-and-go-seek with a rubber tree plant that sat in the corner. Garrett watched in amusement as the child laughed and peeped behind the plastic tree.
“I’m sorry.” The father jumped up and swept the little boy into his arms.
“Hey little fella.” Garrett tried talking to the kid, but his attention was fixated on that tree and what was behind it.
“He does this all the time, except at home he’s playing in the drapes. I think he has an imaginary friend he talks and plays with all the time. It would be nice to give him a little brother or sister to play with, but.” He looked over his shoulder and whispered to Garrett. “I don’t think my wife at home would be too happy about that.”
Garrett glanced at the woman who obviously wasn’t his wife. “I understand.” Garrett said before taking his seat next to Reneé.
“Cute kid.” Reneé commented. “I wonder if our kid would be just as cute.”
Garrett hated it when Reneé said things like that. She made it seem like he didn’t care about the baby she was carrying. He often wondered if he had fathered a boy or a girl. Deep down inside he really wished for a boy, but the truth was, it really didn’t matter because the child would never get the chance to take one breath of life.
***
From heaven, Garrett saw a running escalator that was full of angels going up and coming down. At least half a dozen angels sat in the waiting room with them. The angels walked around as if they belonged on earth, but it was obvious that each angel came there with a purpose. Most angels that arrived went straight to the back of the clinic. Their job was to whisper words of comfort in the ears of patients. Others were carrying the souls of the aborted babies back to heaven. One angel’s sole purpose was to play hide-and-go-seek with the little boy in the waiting room.
In amusement Garrett laughed out loud. It was the first time he had laughed since being in the Throne Room. “Angels really lived among us on earth!” He was amazed. “I would have never believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.” Garrett looked at the scene again.
“I know. That’s why we waited until you got here to show you.” Kiel replied.
***
Garrett nervously bounced his leg up and down. “I wish they would hurry up.”
“Excuse me.” Startled, Garrett looked up into the face of an old white man. He and Reneé shifted their legs to allow the
man to scoot past them. By the long white trench coat, torn sneakers and bushy untamed beard, Garrett assumed the man was homeless.
***
Suddenly, angels stopped coming and all the angels that were in the clinic formed a single line to return to heaven.
“What’s happening?” Garrett asked.
“God is calling us home.” Kiel replied.
“But why? Why are you leaving now?”
“You already know why.” Kiel solemnly replied.
***
Garrett eyed the man mysteriously. Why would a homeless person wander into an abortion clinic he thought?
“Excuse me again” Their strange neighbor leaned over close to Reneé and Garrett to pose a question. “Do you believe murderers have souls?”
Reneé thought the man was delusional so she asked him to repeat the question.
“Do you believe that murderers, like you, can get into heaven?” The man’s voice rose higher and higher. “A woman is supposed to be the bearer of life, not death.” The man stood up, “Where do you think your baby’s soul is going to go? Heaven or Hell?”
The security guard heard the commotion and walked around from behind his desk. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The man ignored the security guard and continued his tirade towards Reneé and Garrett.
Keeping his voice low and steady the guard insisted that the man leave the premises, but the stranger remained. Then the altercation turned physical.
“Get your hands off of me.” The guard had a tight grip on the man’s arm. He aggressively pulled to get him out the front doors, but the man tore away from his hold and ripped open his coat to reveal six homemade bombs strapped to his chest.
Alarmed, Garrett jumped up and pushed Reneé behind him. He stared at the deranged man and the contraption he had attached to his chest. The bombs looked like they were made of dynamite, nails and spikes. Garrett knew that if he detonated that bomb they were all dead.
The security guard stepped back and held up his hands in surrender.