The Price of Faith

The Price of Faith

I switched off the remote to the electric mower when the car drove into the driveway.

“Hi Grandpa Ernie.” Kendra waved from the car. “How are you today?”

“Why hello!” I called. Walking over to the car, I saw my great granddaughter Kaylie in the back seat . “Hi there cutie,” I smiled at the top of her five year old head. “Are you feeling bashful today?”

“Kaylie, say hi to Grandpa Ernie!” Kendra directed. “I don’t know what it is with these kids, I couldn’t get her to stay quiet all day, now she won’t talk!”

“Oh, she’s just feeling a little bashful today.”

“Yeah probably,” she said, “say, Grandpa, could you do me a favor?”

“Why sure, probably.” I laughed. “What do you need, sweetie?”

“I really have to get to a job interview this afternoon and Kaylie doesn’t have afternoon school, so, if I could maybe leave her here for a few hours?”

“Why sure. I can finish mowing tomorrow. What do you say Kaylie? Would you like to stay and help me putter in the garden?”

With a shy smile, the little girl carefully unhooked her seat belt, and scooted across the seat as I opened the door. “Hi Grandpa Ernie,” she said quietly, “where’s Roscoe?”

My terrier Roscoe; never fond of mowers, especially remote controlled ones, was at the moment hiding in the backyard. “Oh, he's around somewhere.” I laughed. “Probably out in the backyard hiding. Why don’t you run back there and see him while I say goodbye to your mommy?”

With a delighted grin, she dashed off before pulling up and turning back. “Bye mommy,” she shouted, “good luck today!”

“Bye, bye sweetie!” Kendra called with a laugh. “Have fun and behave yourself for Grandpa Ernie!”

“Okay, I will!” Kaylie shouted, continuing her dash for the backyard.

“I hope this isn’t a imposition.” Kendra said quietly. “I really have to get to this interview and my regular baby sitter had other plans today.”

“Oh no, don’t worry about it.” I reassured her. “Have you heard anything from Todd lately?” I asked. Todd; her husband, my grandson-in-law, currently served in the Army and stationed in the “Zone” just on the outskirts of Islamada.

“No, not for almost a month.” She frowned. “The mail and phone are both having another of those damn service interruptions! I sure hope there is no offensive in the works any time soon; he’s due to be rotated back stateside the first of the month.”

Todd was on his tour of duty in the service, a requirement since 2010, when the War of Faith began. Replacing the old selective service draft, with four years of required community assistance was the last act of the old Republican Political party in 2008. Never a popular law, it proved to be one thing the old politicians got fairly right, especially in the light of the war that has raged since the coalition of Islamic People’s declared war.

When hydrogen began to be seriously studied and utilized in 2009 the oil dependence of the world began to wane seriously, bankrupting many Arabic countries and causing wide-spread poverty and famine. Somehow, this too, was an affront; deliberately created by the Christian and Jewish coalition, according to the new Islamic prophet, Mouhammod Ibin.

The bombing and terrorist activities of the early 2000’s, replaced by outright mustering of troops and military build up, as the Middle Eastern countries began building a full strength coalition. In the fall of 2010 the invasion of Israel was their first thrust. Israel held strong for almost two years, but it was soon overthrown by the sheer number of invaders.

The United Nations called upon the rest of the world to send Peacekeeper forces. My youngest son joined before the call up really got under way. He was of course, too old by then to be a soldier, but in the beginning of the war the military discarded age and most physical requirements in the rush to contain the outbreak. Although the Christian/Jewish coalition had superior equipment and supplies, the sheer weight of numbers was against them. We received the news that our son and his entire brigade were lost barely two months after the hostilities began, hundreds of thousands other families were soon so informed. Before the The Stand at Normandy, it looked like the United Kingdom was doomed to fall, but the western forces held without the benefit of China’s Great Wall to stand behind.

Steady immigration into Canada and other countries, of Islamic “refugees” had deposited cells of highly placed insurrectionists, virtually on the door-step of the Christian world. It almost took the collapse of Canada before they were routed out. Out of the fear and confusion, arose the United States of North America, sea to shining sea, North Pole to the Panama Canal. The only competing political parties were the military and the religions. Most of Asia and Africa were overthrown from within by Islamics, China held, but barely. The staging area for the war was Australia, now, a giant military compound.

My granddaughter Kendra, lost her father when she was nine years old, it didn’t surprise anyone that her first love and husband would be a soldier. Now she and her daughter waited, as husband and father did his duty. She really didn’t need a job, once my first book hit the shelves I made a more than comfortable enough living to support us all, but she needed to be busy while she waited.

“If you hear anything,” I said, “please let us know, and if you get a chance to talk to Todd, be sure and give him our best.”

“I will Grandpa,” she said, “he knows, but I’ll tell him anyway.”

I stood in the driveway, watching as she gracefully backed the Hybrid out. With a toot of the horn and a cheery wave, she drove away. Hope and faith, sustain us all in this new world.