Wings of Deception (7 page)

The next day was Sunday and she was excited for she wanted to find
people who believed in God
.

It was a big church, probably the largest in the whole town. Not sure what she was expecting she waited to hear the Word. There was singing which was nice and she tried to sing songs unfamiliar to her. There was a special speaker who told about a mission the church was supporting overseas, that she enjoyed hearing about but what she was waiting for was the Bible. No one read
out of
the Bible
which
had become a living thing to her in less than forty-eight hours. When the gold colored plates were passed, she dropped some bills in and
thought;
now we will get to the Bible
, but she was wrong. A man was dismissing the gathering and though she spoke to and was spoken to, there was a void left in her that was just demanding to be filled with something that she
had not
yet
found
.

She went home still hungry for something but really didn’t know what.
T
hat afternoon she curled up with her big black book
again
and read. She read
all the way
through Mathew and Mark before she quit.
W
hen she went to bed
,
she
tho
u
ght about
what she had read of the life of
Jesus
,
the Christ
and how He painfully died for even her
,
but gloriously rose to eternal life
,
offer
ing
her and all people the same if they wanted it. She felt hot tears
of conviction
on her face, running down to wet her pillow as she prayed for the first time as an adult.
Her being was filled with belief that Jesus was real and she knew in her heart that He truly was Emanuel, God come in the flesh
as the man in the video claimed
. Her prayer
was not eloquent but a sincere one
,
caus
ing
all the
angels
in the Heavenly realm
to sing praises
to God
,
but one
more than all
.

Ragas beamed
while
without much thought, whopped one little demon back to the abyss right then
,
who dared get close enough to the newly professed Christian. Several more of the dark evil imps slunk away fearing the great Ragas
even
more than the general they would have to face
upon return to the
ir
camp
.
O
ne
who was
called Whiney complained that General
Osotuf
always gave them the hard cases. The one called
Ilie
, was busy making up the huge fight that resulted in poor old Argo’s disappearance…and how they just barely escaped.

Meanwhile, j
ust as she drifted off into a wonderful and peaceful slumber
Honey
remembered her childhood friend and was sure he was
the guardian angel
of whom
Carol
was talking of
.
Parts of a
poem
floated through her mind and she wondered h
ow she
could
have ever forgotten?

My mother said he was not real
b
ut he was real to me

We played and he told me stories
as
we were
sitting in a tree

He was so kind and ever near
e
very time I had some hurts

Sometimes he made me smile
w
hen all I felt was tears

He did not wear clothes
l
ike pants and shirts

But pretty
flowing things
a
nd hair below his ears

He had brown
kind
eyes and
a
nice smile too

I always felt safe
w
hen he was near

I miss my friend
and
I hope he comes back again

    Ragas moved his head up and down;
silently
giving God praise, for the time
was surely here
.
Honey
was awakening out of her
stupor
. She had found her eyes to see and
ears to
hear.

                                                           
       
******

She
was surprised at how much
things
changed
the
days
after Carol’s visit.
She felt
that
up to this point her life had been only a dream and now she was awake
,
living every moment of each day charged with
electric
al
excit
em
ent.

God was not just some ‘higher power’ to her now
,
but the closest relative a person could have, her Heavenly Father. She understood where she came from and now everything
in
her whole life made sense.

At the clinic
,
her coworkers noticed a change in her. She smiled more and her eyes h
eld
a brightness they lacked before.
She asked questions of some that she knew were Christians and was surprised at how unenthused they seemed to be.
Where was the excitement she had to wonder, that came with the knowledge that there really was a purpose to living. She had an irresistible urge to surround herself with
o
thers who felt the same way as she
.
For
two weeks she was filled with disappointment
,
for t
he churches
she visited
se
em
ed to care more about social
status
than
learning about
the
God they served
.
Or else they had a bunch of rules that had nothing to do with living a Christian life. She prayed for God to help her find people who were as excited about Him as she was.
She could not get enough of the old man who made her hunger for the Word
and brought it alive to her. She studied daily with him, learning to use a Strong’s concordance along with her Bible
for words she did not understand.

She thought about the little girl who
had
changed her life
drastically
and wondered how she was
doing
.
Then
the thought occurred to her
,
that
Carol’s family
must have a place they went to worship
and study. Why she hadn’t thought of that before was beyond her but
now
she would just ask them.

Carol’s
father was the one who answered
when she
called
,
“Ms
Magill
, of course I r
emem
ber you. How thoughtful
of
you to call and check on Carol! We just spent a week at University in Jackson but she is home right now doing as well as we can expect.”

“I am happy to hear that.
Mr
.
Bowler
,
there is another reason I called.
I was wondering
if
you go to church. You see,
since
Carol’s visit, I have changed. I believe
things now that I did not before
and I have been studying the Bible
sort of on my own
.
I want to be around people who feel like I do and I am ashamed to say I have no Christian friends.
”

“
Why y
es ma’am, we go to Faith Chapel, just down the road from us
on Charter Street
.
You know the little brown one sitting on the corner.
”

Faith Chapel
.
I
t had a nice sound to it.
“
I have seen that one but it
’
s so small!
Do
es it
study the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse
there
?”
She was thinking about what the man had said on the video.

“Don’t all churches?”
Joe Bowler was a simple man and it was beyond him that anyone would go to a church for any other reason than the Word.

Honey
laughed.

“No, not
all of them
Mr
.
Bowler
and
I would love to visit your church Sunday.”

“
It
’
s
Joe
and
n
o need to wait for
Sunday;
we have Bible study
Thursday
evenings
.
Seven thirty.
We would be pleased to have you come.
It is good friends you’ll make there
,
I promise.
”

“
Joe.
I will be there Thursday
then
.
T
hank you so much! P
lease tell Carol I
asked about her
and
tell her I am so happy she came to see me that day.
It has changed my life!
”

“I will be
glad
to.
She will be
glad
to hear that you listened to her too.
”

“Good-bye.”

She hung up the phone wondering why she had waited so long to call.
Of course it just made sense!
The little church Joe was talking about was the last one she would have chosen on her own and she had a felling she was being guided by her new faith. It was a good feeling.

                                                                       FOUR

Dwight
took the
now
chunky little baby from Alice,
a young girl
he hired
to be
G
e
m
’s
day
nanny the same week she came home from the hospital.
Gem
was eight months old and
already trying
to take steps. 

“Did you miss your daddy
today,
doodle bug
?”
Turning to Alice
,
who was tidying up before leaving for home, he asked,
“How’s the teething
going
? Better
I hope, so we can both sleep tonight!
”

“Yes sir, I think it is just about to pop through. We’ve been rubbing it with that teething cloth a lot and no t
e
m
perature at all. She
is
just the sweetest baby
,
even when she’s not feeling well
!”
She took
the reaching baby
back
from him
to love on
her
before
leaving for
home.

Alice was eighteen and this was her first year out of
high
school. She wanted to go to college
,
but there was just not enough money for her parents to afford to send her and
she
did not qualify for any grants. So when she asked to
baby sit
G
e
m
for
a
reasonable salary he could afford,
Dwight
hired her. She had four younger brothers and sisters that she helped her mother with so she was familiar with
handling babies and qui
te
good at it.
In case she was not able to be there for any reason
,
there was a long list of names and numbers of women in the church
who
would drop most anything to get a turn with the
pastor’s
baby girl. Motherless she might be, but
she
never lack
ed
for f
e
m
ale attention.