Whom the Lord Brings Together

If you've ever been to a comedy club, then you know it's not a place for the faint
of heart, nor the feeble minded. Unless the place has banned cigarettes, the
entire room is usually filled with swirling trails of thick smoke, and the ever popular "f"
bomb is being detonated at just about every patron's table on the floor. Then there's
the occasional bar room brawl over a taken chair or spilled beer. This all goes on while
they wait for the next performer to be introduced by the emcee.

Well, Springfield's only comedy club, the Knee Slapper, was certainly no exception
to the above standards. In fact, it eventually got to the point where Bud the owner of
the place reached the sad conclusion that most of the crowd was only there to hang out
and cause trouble. Or at least be lucky enough to get close to the action when someone
else would cause it. And yes, someone usually did.

However, one thing Bud could always count on was Bobby Randall. Not only was the
guy funnier than the other comics by far, he always arrived on time every Thursday, Friday
and Saturday night. And the best part was there never seemed to be any trouble during
his performances, which made sense considering that he was so good at his job, the
audiences remained focused too much on his jokes to do anything but laugh. Of course,
as the old saying goes, all good things must eventually come to an end.

Which brings us to Thursday night, September 21st, 2009.

Bobby couldn't figure out why the crowd was so tense and uptight. Last week,
they were so receptive to his stand-up routine, as was the norm. Tonight however,
some of them were actually conversing amongst themselves while he was talking,
as if he weren't even on the stage.

Better use some of my funnier stuff or the boss is gonna give me a week off and tell me
to write some new jokes,  Bobby lamented to himself. Some jerk about four tables away
from the stage yelled up to him, "Yo, Randall! Don't quitcha day job!" That was followed by
a few loud giggles and a drunk fellow shouting in agreement.

Pretending he hadn't heard the rude hecklers, Bobby continued his stand-up act... "So I heard
recently that some singers write their own songs, and they do it on the spur of the moment.
Imagine that? Makes me wonder what Springsteen was doin' the day he wrote I'm on Fire.
I'm thinkin' maybe he caught his sleeve on the flame while cookin' some burgers."

He got a few chuckles from the crowd of over 200. Okay, not good.  Some tables began to
empty as Bobby cleared his throat a bit nervously and went on. "I'm at Burger King the other day
with my cousin and he's telling' me that fast food is bad for you. He says it can lead to serious
health issues like diabetes and heart attacks. So I smacked him in the mouth for waitin' till I was
on my fourth Whopper with cheese before he decided to tell me that!"

A couple of quick giggles and a cough sounded from the crowd. Bobby went on.

"I'm tellin' ya, some people have no sense o' humor, folks. Just the other day, my mother's
backin' her car up in front of the post office and she tells me to watch my side. Just to
make her laugh, I yell out Bamm! and she slams on the brakes and says, 'what I hit?
What I hit?!' I told her I was kiddin' and she winds up makin' me walk home! Like dang, ma!
Lighten up, it was a just joke!"

A few boos after that one. Bobby tried to keep his composure, but it wasn't easy once he
felt the droplets of sweat forming on his brow and neck. He continued.

"So what's the story with these cute little cashier girls at the grocery store? I wanna know why
they gotta drop the change from like two feet above my hand. Am I that ugly? I do shower, ya know.
Are they afraid of catchin' some disease if they touch me? I swear, they drop the change so far up,
I can actually hear it droppin'. (he made a long whistling sound) It sounds like B-2 bomber
planes in a World War 2 documentary."

It all went downhill from there. A tomato smacked Bobby on the left side of his face
and then he heard a man's voice yell, "There's a bomb for ya! Hahahaha!!
Just like your act!"

Bobby ran to the edge of the stage where the idiot was seated. He lunged.The idiot with the big mouth
moved quick, but not quick enough, and soon he was on the floor with his face being pounding on.
Immediately after the third punch however, Bobby heard a loud crack, and the idiot's face and everything
else in the joint suddenly went dark.

When Bobby came to, he was in the hospital with his boss sitting next to him. As it turns out, the idiot's
girlfriend smashed a half-empty beer bottle over his head, and then they both made haste for the club's exit.

Bobby wanted to ask Bud if he was still gonna pay him for the show despite the riot, but
he was too groggy to even mumble. His boss in fact was planning on paying him, but that night
would be Bobby Randall's last act at The Knee Slapper. And for the life of Bud, he didn't even
know why he was gonna can the guy who drew more customers than any of the other opening
acts. But he was gonna do it, just the same, as if against his own will. And if anyone
were to tell him that he was only doing what the Lord wanted him to do because
He had other plans for Bobby, he would have laughed in disbelief. The person
telling him that would've been correct, but Bud would have laughed in disbelief, regardless.

Later on that night, Bobby had a visit in his dreams by someone claiming to be a messenger of
the Lord. It was the second straight night he had the clear dream, and for the second straight
night, he was freaked out by it all.

"Bobby, the Lord wants you to pursue another career," the messenger informed him.
"And your knack for making people laugh and smile will surely be a plus in your new
endeavor. However, doing stand-up comedy in heathen night clubs will no longer be
in your repertoire. Your Father in Heaven has different plans for you now."

After he awoke, Bobby completely forgot what the new career was going to be. He only knew
two things for sure. The first thing was, he didn't believe in God, so the visit was most likely a
fluke, although it was most definitely his clearest dream thus far, at least in recent memory. And
the peace he felt while the messenger was speaking was so incredibly soothing that he was a bit
disappointed when he had to wake up. Especially this second time, considering the headache.

The second thing he knew was, the angel in his dream may or may not have been
imaginary, but it was spot on about him pursuing a new career, as he was now out of a job.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Jason Backus sat with his hands folded on the card table he was seated at.
His Bible was open and he was looking across at Zachary Powers, a freshman
in high school who was fascinated with the obvious and sometimes mysteriously vague
fulfillments of Bible Prophecy. Jay was rather an expert in this field, and of course, he
always chalked up his knowledge as a Blessing from God.

He had just finished showing Zack where in the Bible one can find a clear reference
to the need for a global identification system so that the coming antichrist
can use said system to keep track of everyone left on the planet after
the Christians are raptured up to Heaven.

"Jay, that is absolutely incredible! I mean, I'm seeing it in the Scriptures
you're showing me, and yet I'm still psyched!" Zack's eyes
were open wide and he was smiling excitedly. "And you think we're not far off
from this number system coming to fruition?" He wasn't aware of it, but he was
rocking back and forth in his chair rather fast as the words rushed from his mouth.

"Oh, I know we're not far off, Zack. Come here, lemme show you something.
I actually wanted to print this out for our meeting today, but I got home
late from work because of a stupid brawl at a red light which tied up
traffic for over an hour." He clicked the internet on his pc and went to
his Bible Prophecy News folder.

"Yeah, I heard something about that. Did you see any fighting?" Zack
eagerly asked, just as Jay figured he would.

"Nope. And I wouldn't have watched had I the chance. I abhor violence,
Bro. You know that." He got the story he wanted from the folder and
showed it to Zack. "Anyway", he continued, "here's the story.

"It talks about this new so-called Digital chip and Microbug from a
company called 'Network Digital, Incorporated'. Pretty freaky, Zack. Here,
I'll print it off now. No, wait. Even better. I'll just forward it to
your email. How's that?"

"Cool beans, man." Zack looked at his watch. "Oh shoot. Seems like I
just got here." He went to the card table, closed his own Bible and
carefully placed it back into the backpack he arrived with. "Jay, I'm
real glad we met, man." He held out his hand to Jay, who reciprocated.
"I just have this strong feeling God Brought you into my life so I could
find out these things. Ya know?"

Jay chuckled. "Yeah, I see what you're getting at. But I look at it like,
God Brought you into my life also." He opened the door for Zachary.
"But remember, it's more than just studying Prophecy, bro. I mean,
you haven't even said the sinner's prayer yet. And that's something
we'll definitely have to talk about next week. Okay?"

"Yep! Not a problem, my man!" Zack answered with a cheery smile.
"Lookin' forward to it." And he took off with his usual high-stepping,
brisk strut to Jay's front door and out to his 21-speed mountain bike.

Jay smiled after him and then walked back to the meeting room he made
especially for his talks with Zack and about fourteen others. He would rather
discuss the touchy and sometimes complicated subject of Bible Prophecy
one on one, but he knew that was now impossible. The more people who
came to him through word of mouth, etc., the more people there would be
in future meetings.

After uttering a quiet prayer for Zachary to his Heavenly Father in
Jesus's Name, Jay sat at his pc desk and went to one of his usual
world news websites to see if there was anything going on in current events
that he could relate to Bible Prophecy. And sure enough, there was.

Right at the top of the news site he was at were big red letters
that spelled out the words Three Sudanese Christians Put to Death for
Participating in Peaceful Demonstrations!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Cut to the sixth floor of Richfield Synthetics, Inc., a fairly decent-sized company
which processes, reprocesses and ships rolls of different vinyl-like fabrics out for
car interiors, furniture, swimming pools, etc.

Karleen Ricci sat at the desk of her personal "secretary" office during
lunch break, filling out a detailed summary of herself and what she
was looking for in the Woman Seeking Man ads of "Dates R Us" dot com. Finally,
she proofread it in a low voice so noone would know her business.

"Okay, let's see.  SWF, 36, 5' 6", 125, semi-long blonde hair, green eyes, non smoker,
occasional social drinker, never married, no kids ... into working out,
camping, hiking, long walks in the park, candlelight dinners, renting romantic
movies, cuddling on the sofa with a cute, muscular guy who isn't
afraid of the "C" word.

"What I like: Chinese food, 80's pop & disco, kissing, reading
Danielle Steele and hearing a man groan with ecstasy as I'm giving him
a professional neck, shoulder and back rub. What I don't like: rude people, liars,
head games, cigarette smoke, alcoholics, unkept beards, male chauvinists, hypocrites,
know-it-alls, smart allecks, dirty jokes, and did I mention head games?

"Seeking a man 35 - 50, clean-shaven/neat moustache, race unimportant, must be
taller than I, in good shape, non-smoker, kids ok, wife not ok (do you see me laughing??),
hippies need not apply, you must not be afraid of the "C" word. And FYI, c stands for
COMMITMENT!!!!!

"If the above applies to you, please leave a message. Thanks."

Her buzzer sounded. Aaaay, what the heck does he want now? My lunch break
isn't over for another 25 minutes. I thought I told him I have a headache. Why can't he
get lost? The buzzer sounded again. After clicking out of the website, she growled
and took a deep breath to collect herself. "Ahem." She then depressed the intercom.

"Yes, Mr. Jennison?" she said in her most polite tone.

A laugh that sent chills down her spine sounded over the speaker. "Oh Karleen,
would you please stop calling me that? For cryin' out loud, girl, after all the fun we've
had together lately, you should be calling me tiger by now, or something."

Yeah, or something. Something that would surely get me fired! Karleen thought with
disgust, as a slight wave of nausea suddenly swept over her.

He continued, "So tell me, dear darling Karleen, did you take anything for your
headache yet?" The smugness in his voice was sickeningly obvious. She was
about to lie and say yes when her door suddenly opened and her loser boss
casually stepped in with a pathetic smirk on his face.

Putting his hands in his trouser pockets, he coyly made his way over to
where she sat and parked his rump in front of her pc monitor, which was situated
to her left on the desk. Still smirking, he asked, "so what did you take? For the
headache, I mean." His eyes locked onto hers and she cringed.

"Um, Advil, s-sir," she replied barely above a whisper.

"Advil, you say?" Hands still in pockets and still smiling, he leaned over a little. "Why,
that's the brand I use, Karleen. And it just so happens that I feel a bit of a headache
coming on myself." He bent over so far that he was almost eye level with her, and
the smile left his face as he asked, "may I please have one?"

Oh great, I'm toast, she thought nervously. She didn't have any headache pills,
and her boss was about to find out she was lying. She answered softly, "I think
they're in my handbag."

One of his eyebrows raised at her reply and he suspiciously followed her hand as
it reached behind her and removed the handbag from its hanging place on the back
of her chair. Without looking back at him, she slowly unzipped the main compartment
and began fumbling with the contents inside. Out of the corner of her eye, she could
see two of Mr. Jennison's fingers impatiently tapping on his other arm.

Finally she gazed back up at him and shrugged helplessly, eyes wide like a child
who couldn't find the crayon in his toy chest that he scribbled on the wall with
because he ran to the bathroom and threw it in the toilet when mommy caught him.

The smug grin returned as he shook his head. "Tsk tsk, dear", he said while getting
up and walking over to the doorway he had just walked through. He then did exactly what
she was hoping he wouldn't do. But he did. He closed the door and locked it. Unfortunately
for Karleen, he was still in her office while doing so.

"Know what?" he asked while walking over to her plush office sofa, unbuttoning his
dress shirt along the way. "I saw your aunt Dolores this morning. Poor thing. She's looking
worse by the days. How long you think she has left? A year? A couple of months?"
He removed his shirt and dropped it on the back of the sofa. And while he was lifting
his undershirt over his head, he said, "Boy, that sure is a lotta money you're gonna
be getting, hmm? Providing she doesn't discover our little secret, that is."

Yeah honey, it is a lot of money, Karleen thought in ire, as she reached down
and removed her heels, a tear forming in her right eye. And the first thing I'm gonna do
is hire two thugs to smash your evil face into the nearest wall! 

While walking barefoot over to her unsympathetic boss, she wondered how she ever
got into this mess. But of course, she already knew.

Her feeble aunt Dolores worked in the package assembly department of Richfield, Inc.
and she's the one who got Karleen hired not quite two months ago. And boy oh boy,
Mr. Jennison made it quite clear from day one that he was hot for his new secretary.
Well actually, he only made it clear to Karleen herself, but make it clear he sure did.
And in her mind, she was having no part of it.

That was until she absent-mindedly left her personal journal on her desk
one day while going out for coffees. And nosey creep that he is, her boss
picked up the journal and began reading it.

It was filled with so much dirty laundry about anyone and everyone Karleen knew that he
personally called her cell phone and ordered her to skip the coffees and instead go to
Office Max, where she was to pick up a package of pens. After which he hung up and
read as much as he could before she returned over two hours later. But he didn't need
that long.

All he really wanted was to do was read anything he could find on what she thought about
him, so he only had to go back about thirty pages from the end till he reached her first days
on the job. Oh yeah, he found out what she thought about him, all right. And none of it was
good. But what was even more interesting than that was what she thought of her dear, dying
aunt. Not much. Not much good, that is. In fact, she didn't like her aunt at all because --as he
learned from the journal...

"She's a typical Born again Christian. Always pointing out everyone else's faults
and never focusing on her own. And that retarded lisp of hers. Yuckk! I just wish
she'd hurry up and croak so I can get that money she's leaving me in her will.
Then I can leave this job and pay someone to scratch the word LOSER on my
boss Mr. pig Jennison's dark green Volvo!"

He intentionally made it a point to remain reading it upon her return. Yep. As far as
he was concerned, he had her just where she was meant to be. In the palm of his hands.
And what she wouldn't do to see someone erase the cocky smirk Peter Jennison had on
his ugly face while she was removing her blouse!

One day, Petey. One day soon.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bobby knocked on his landlady's door and listened for footsteps. He didn't hear any,
so he decided to wait on the stairs for her to return home. Of course, while he
sat on the top step waiting for her arrival, he began reminiscing about the coolest job
he ever had, which he was now removed from, supposedly by the hand of God. At least,
according to the dream angel anyway.

But why, though? I mean, let's say there is a God. Why the heck would He make me
lose my job? Especially when He's supposed to know everything. Because if He does know
everything, then He should know full well that I loved that job so much! I mean there I am
up on a stage with all eyes and ears focused on what I have to say. And I made 'em all laugh.

Bobby's mind drifted to some of his stand-up jokes ...

"Let's face it, guys. We do say some dumb things, don't we? Like, we'll see some
pedestrian run over by a smelly garbage truck and now he's helplessly pinned somewhere
underneath the truck's frame, blood spillin' out of his guts .. and what do we say to him??

'Yo buddy! You all right?!'"

That always got the laughs. Heh heh.

"And I don't care how hurt he is, you can bet after that dumb question, his answer's
gonna be in the form of sarcasm! 'Oh yeah. Never better. Boy, I gotta do this more often.
Of course I'm not all right, you idiot! Get me outta here!!'" 

Nope. I won't be getting laughs for that joke anymore.

"Excuse me?? Do I hear some women in the audience laughing?? Oh pleeeeeeease! Don't even
get me goin' with the dumb things y'all say!" More laughter.

"Example! Your man's got his head under the kitchen sink working on the pipes.
Finally, he's done, all sweaty, greasy and aggravated. As he's getting back up,
he slams his head on top of the cubby hole. "Owwww!!" he yells, holding his
head in agony, and what do you say, ladies? Never fails ...

'Oh dear, watch your head, honey.'"

Hahahaha. That was one of my faves.

"And oh boy, the look he gives you after that. 'Watch my head? Watch my head?!
Umm, how about warning me beforehand next time?  Grrr!'"

Bobby was smiling as the downstairs door opened and Tonya Lake came in and began
ascending the stairs with a few grocery bags. He quickly went down and took the bags
from her. She thanked him and they both went up into her apartment where he helped with
her coat and then removed his own.

It was kind of a recurring situation where he would stay for dinner every rent day.
She insisted at first and then after a while he would just automatically remove his
coat and sit at the kitchen table while she took out the supper items and began cooking,
never accepting his help. However, she did catch him off guard once when she said
"Look, leave the food alone. So long as you're a guest here, I'll cook it. When you
start sleeping in my bed, then I'll let you... " And they both shot a wide-eyed stare
at each other at that statement.

She wanted so bad to apologize, but the words never came off her tongue. And it was
pretty much forgotten after about a week or so, which was fine with her because
she was a good Christian girl who vowed never to sleep with another man once she was
saved at age 37. She was now 42 and so far, she had remained loyal to her word.

There was really only one love interest in her life at that time anyway, and that was
Jay. However, he made it clear one day when she told him how bad she wanted him to
take her out that he thought of her as a younger sister and could never bring himself
to kiss her, let alone make love to her, even after marriage. So that was that.

Besides, Robert Randall was just one of her tenants living in this two-family apartment
house her dad left her in his will. But he was lonely and she could feel it in her
heart. So she cooked him a nice supper every rent day and occasionally she would
drop off a homemade cherry pie or carrot cake at his apartment.

But aside from that, there was nothing between them, so far as she knew. At least
not until that morning, when she awoke from an incredibly vivid dream.

In the dream, Bobby was standing atop a hill that overlooked the city they live in,
and he had a bright blue Bible in his hand. There was a beautiful Light shining down
on his body from high in the sky. The look of confidence on his face was incredibly
attractive and her heart was thumping. He turned to look at her and she blushed.

"The Lord's Return draws nigh, Gina. We must remain alert and ever ready to act
upon His will." He took her hand and they both began to descend the hill together.
She could not keep her eyes off of him until she finally awoke. And as you may have
guessed, her heart was still thumping.

Just one problem, Lord,  she thought while spreading some mozzarella cheese over the
lasagne she was preparing. Unless something has recently occurred in Bobby's life
that I'm unaware of, he's not of Your Kingdom. And as You know, I wanna spend the rest of
my days here in this world with a man who loves and serves You. I don't know what to do,
Lord. Please help me.

Well, you can imagine her shock when she turned around to see Bobby staring at her
from the kitchen table, as he suddenly came out and asked, "Tonya, have you ever
had a dream about God?"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Another 25 minute shower for Karleen. She always took a long one after being sexually
manipulated (and totally grossed out) by her boss.

Recently, she contemplated having her tough cousin Jerry go to Mr. Jennison's house
and smash his car windows and flatten the tires, but then she remembered the statements
in her personal journal. Anyone reading them would automatically finger her as a leading suspect
if something happened to the cretin. She would certainly be the first person the authorities would
arrest. So for now, she would have to bide her time until the incriminating evidence was back with her.

Still in only her bath towel, Karleen went to the liquor cabinet in the dining room, poured
herself a small glass of burgundy, and then walked over to the sofa. She sat down,
crossed her legs and drifted back in time. She thought about her days in college and
Kenneth Mackie, a cute auto mechanic. They met at a local dance club. He walked over
and took her by the hand so they could dance to Teena Marie's "Lovergirl".

Karleen smiled without realizing it, and she suddenly had the urge to hear the tune.
She got up and went to her cd collection. After searching through all her 80's cd's,
she realized that she just didn't have that song, so she settled for Madonna's
"Crazy For You", which was the first song she slow danced to with Kenny.

While pretending to lean against her knight in shining armor's chest, her eyes got more
watery with each line. Nonetheless, she kept swaying to the slow song while taking tiny
sips of the wine. It was a melancholy moment, for sure.

36 years old, single and lonely. Almost desperate. And what really burned her insides
was the fact that the only sex she was having was being forced upon her via blackmail,
and the piece of scum wasn't even good looking. She was seriously pondering flinging
her glass across the room when the phone rang. Instead of answering it, she ran to the
sofa, got down on her knees and buried her face into the cushion, sobbing helplessly.
She let the phone ring until the answering machine picked up. It was her cousin Donna.

Somewhat frantically, Donna said to the machine, "Karleen, are you there?
Momma just had a heart attack. She's still alive, but she's in critical condition
at Pilgrims General Hospital. The only thing she keeps saying is, I want Karleen.
Where's Karleen? Hon, you and I are all she's got left. Please, get over here as soon as
you get this message. She's on the fifth floor, room 10. I'll be... " BEEEEEP!

Suddenly, Karleen forgot all about Peter Jennison, Kenneth Mackie and the year 1985.
Her eyes opened wide and a smile spread across her lips. She looked at the answering
machine and thought, moneeeyyyyyy!

She was on the fifth floor of Pilgrims General in less than an hour, ears red,
heart racing a bit and a little sweaty on her brow and underarms. She had been in
too much of a rush to apply any deodorant before dressing.

When Karleen walked in, Donna was by Aunt Dolores's bed with her hand on her mom's.
She saw her cousin and quickly rose to greet her. They hugged. "Oh Karleen, this means
so much to momma. Thanks for coming so soon, dear". Donna was obviously distraught.

Staring at all the tubes in and out of her aunt's body, Karleen replied, "Sure, no problem.
Is she dead yet?"

Just as Donna was gasping at the bluntness of her cousin's question, Aunt Dolores
called over, "Karleen, come here." And to her daughter, she stated "Donna, I wish to
speak with Karleen in private." Donna's head swooshed around, and she just stared
at her mother in utter amazement before stuttering out the words, "M - Momma?
Oh my gosh, you're talking."

Karleen just stared at her aunt with a frown, and she thought um, you don't look like
someone in critical condition to me, lady. But she dared not speak the words aloud.

"Donna, please", Aunt Dolores continued. "Leave me and your cousin alone
for about five minutes. It's my last dying wish to you, dear." Her crying daughter
went over and hugged her as gently as possible. "Momma, I love you." And then
she kissed Dolores lightly on the forehead and walked briskly out of the room. It would be
the last time she'd see her mother alive.

Dolores turned to her perplexed niece. "Come here, dear." Karleen obeyed. She was
feeling rather glum all of a sudden after all the plans she thought of on the way over,
and it appeared as though her aunt was in better health now than she had been
in quite some time.

In a bitter tone which was unfortunately indicative of her obvious disappointment, Karleen
asked, "Um, Aunt Dolores, how did you go from being in a coma with all these tubes running
in and out of your face to suddenly... ?"

"There's no time for that, Karleen. Now listen to me very carefully. An invisible angel is
creating havoc down the hall so the nurses and doctors will be kept busy while I talk to you."

Karleen turned toward the door. Hmm, now that she mentions it, there is some kind of
riot going on out there. She turned back to her dying aunt.

"Karleen, your life started out pretty decent. As a child, you had everything any girl
could possibly want, including a loving mother, father, and even a maid. Then
when your parents died, I took custody of you until my husband died and I could
no longer afford your teen expenses and my own bills."

Karleen folded her arms and frowned. Oh brother. I rushed up here to listen to my
lousy life history??

"Then you moved away and lived out the rest of your dependent years with the Collins family
before finally leaving them and the rest of us until not even half a year ago. That's when you were
swindled out of your life savings by Scott, your ex boyfriend who ... "

It was Karleen's turn to interrupt now. "Okay, where are we going with this,
'cause I have to be in work early tomorrow", she said with more bitterness in her voice.

Her aunt suddenly let out a horrible sounding cough before her face tightened with anger.
"Karleen Ricci, if I had the strength, I'd smack you a good one! Now lose that lousy attitude
and listen up because I am on borrowed time here." Her niece suddenly sat up a little straighter
and showed attentiveness.

Dolores continued, "Now first of all, you won't have to go back to work tomorrow unless you wish to pick up
your final paycheck, because as soon as I finish this conversation, I am leaving this world
for good. And you dear are going to be a rich woman. Not filthy rich, but I can assure you,
there's over five million dollars in my will for you, and even more for my darling daughter. Don't let
the fact that I worked on an assembly line fool you, child. The Lord has been very good to me,
but I was told not too long ago that my life savings is to be split between you and Donna.

"Secondly, the Lord has plans for you. Personally, I don't know what they are, but I do know
that you are going to get what you've been searching for lately, and it will be very soon. Whatever
it is will help you carry out God's plans."

Aunt Dolores took her niece's hand and squeezed it rather firmly. "I'll see you soon, dear. Soon
enough, anyway. Good-bye for now."

Then she nodded off to sleep.

The beeping on her heart monitor stopped and went flat.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Jay was sticking CHARLESTON MFG, Inc. labels on buckets when he was summoned to the supervisor's office. He called one of the temp workers over to continue what he was doing and then went to see what was up. It turns out that there was a special order of sample stock which needed to be delivered to a potential client and the truck driver was still on the road. So the boss wanted Jay to deliver the samples.

Roughly an hour and a half later, Jay was backing his company's minivan up to the rear door of Richfield Synthetics, Inc. It was just after 12, so there was noone there to greet him other than a sign which read "Shipping Dept. Closed Between Noon & 1".

Great. So what do I do now, stand around and look dumb for the next hour?

Then he decided to go to the front office and see if maybe they could help him. As he was walking to the door, a fairly new candy apple-red Camaro pulled into the lot and parked in one of the employee spaces. A blond woman got out of the car and made her way over to the same door Jay was about to enter, so he naturally held it open for her.

He offered a smile to the pretty lady, but she took no notice. Nor did she thank him for his chivalry. He was used to that. A lot of rude people around these days, and women had more of a reason to be less sociable anyway, considering some nut cases out there would consider a "thank you" as another way of saying "wow, you're cute, I sure wish you'd follow me to my car later and mug me or something".

She went to the same window he was about to go to, so he waited. She rang the little bell and one of only two people in the office opened the little slot. It was a short, chubby woman who appeared to be in her early fifties. "Hello, Karleen. What's up?"

Hmmm. Karleen, huh? One of my favorite names. Jay thought with a slight smile.

A vision of Karleen Silva suddenly appeared in his mind. He had an unbelievable crush on her back in the 6th grade, but she was only 11 and he was 12, and besides that, his parents moved less than a year later.

Cut back to the present, Jay suddenly caught a whiff of the blond lady's perfume. It knocked him for a loop. Not because it was so strong or so bad, but because --whatever it was-- his senses were invigorated by it. Wow!

"Hey Barb, my aunt Dolores just passed away last night and I'm gonna be taking time off from work, possibly quitting. Is there any way I can get my check now instead of tomorrow?" Jay noticed that Karleen seemed to be a bit tense, as if she were in a hurry, and she kept kicking the point of her high-heeled boots against the floor.

Jay, you think too much. She could be a diabetic, or maybe she's gotta pee.

"Oh wow, Dolores died?" Barbara asked while placing a chubby hand against her open mouth. "Hon, I'm so sorry. Okay, hold on, I'll see if the checks are in yet." She closed the little window. Then came the sound of a vehicle door slamming shut in the parking lot outside, followed by a horn sound, which meant the alarm system was just activated. Karleen's head spun around rapidly and her eyes told a story. Apparently, whoever that car belonged to was no friend of hers.

The door opened and in walked a heavy-set fellow who could've been the girl's dad. Maybe 6' 2", no less than 250 pounds, balding head and a fairly thick moustache. He had a full bag of Wendy's fast food in one hand, and a Wendy's Biggie cup of soda in the other. He also had a look of shock on his face upon seeing Karleen.

"Oh my. Um, hello Miss Ricci. Gee, I heard about your aunt. I'm, errr, real s-sorry to hear about it." He appeared to be a bit nervous about something. Jay pretended not to pay any attention, but he was watching this scene closely. And he also noticed how quickly Karleen's attitude changed from being utterly disappointed to somewhat confident and almost brash.

Hmm. What brought that on? Jay wondered. A second ago, she was ready to duck behind me.

Karleen straightened her posture and calmly replied, "Yeah, well, you know. We all gotta go sometime, Petey."

Petey?? It was all Jay could do to hold back a slight chuckle at the scene taking place here.

The big man continued, "Yeah. Uh, I guess so. Ahem. So, uh, I guess I'll be sending flowers. Oh! By the way, I still have your journal up in my office. You, ah, wanna come up and get it now? Yes? No? Maybe?" A nervous chuckle.

She looked over at Jay and winked with a smile that was so confident, Mae West herself would have been proud. Then she looked back to her boss and opened the door leading into the office. "Sure, Petey. Maybe we can have one last quickie. You know, just for old time's sake."

As the door was closing Jay heard the big guy say "Shhh", before mumbling something as they were on their way to the elevator.

The sliding glass window opened and Barb called over to Jay. "Hi, can I help you?"

He introduced himself as the delivery guy for Charleston Manufacturing, Inc. and she told him that he'd have to see the shipper for that. "But you're more than welcome to wait outside his office."

"No thanks. I'll just go grab something to eat for lunch and come back." And he walked back out of the exit door.

It was a bright day out, temperature around the lower 60's so he decided to walk across the street to Wendy's instead of driving somewhere.

He got a second look at the pretty blond lady's car on the way out of the lot, and he noticed her vanity license plate which read KISSIN.

Kissin' huh? Hmmm. I wonder if that's what you and Petey are doin' upstairs right about now.

If only you knew, Jay.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Karleen was on her way to her job for what would most likely be the last time, and she was hoping she'd get there before Mr. Jennison returned from buying lunch. He was like clockwork. Everyday he went to KFC and got lunch. It was beautiful out, so she knew he'd be going there today. Or at least she truly hoped.

On the way there, she couldn't stop thinking about what her aunt had told her approximately one minute before she died. "You are going to get what you've been searching for very soon, and whatever it is will help you carry out God's Plans."

What the heck could I possibly find very soon that I've been searching for? Today's my last day going to work, so whatever it is, I won't be finding it there ... unless it's today.

She turned into Richfield Synthetics' parking lot and there was a guy she had never seen before walking towards the office entrance. She noticed two things right away. First thing she noticed was, Peter Jennison's Volvo wasn't next to the door, which meant she had timed it great thus far. The second thing she noticed was that the stranger she was looking at in the brown leather bomber jacket had a pretty cute butt.

And in Karleen's experience, that usually translated into, he's a pretty cute jerk! Face it, Karleen, whoever you finally marry's most likely either gonna be homely, old, or both. And at this rate, I'm ready to settle for all of the above, lest I die an old maid.

She happened to catch a long enough glance at the stranger's face to wish she hadn't gotten out of bed that morning. He was holding the door open for her and she always said thank you when someone did that, but she couldn't even bring herself to open her mouth now.

Crikey, that guy's flippin' gorgeous! And me in my stupid faded Lee jeans. Sigh, what else can go wrong today??

She found out fast, for no sooner had she asked Barbara for her check, than Mr. Jennison returned from

Wendy's?? she almost gasped aloud. Since when does this animal eat Wendy's food??!

He walked in and she was just ready to forget the check and storm out the door as far away from this place and that pig beast as possible. That was, until she saw the expression on his face.

"Oh my. Um, hello Miss Ricci. Gee, I heard about your aunt. I'm, errr, real s-sorry to hear about it.", he whimpered. And then it dawned on her.

Oooooooh, this jerk heard about aunt Del passing away. He must be remembering what I wrote in my journal, which explains his whiny voice right now. Wellll, wellllll.

And then, paydirt! After a little meaningless chit chat, the fool invited her upstairs so he could give back the journal he stole and manipulated her with. "Sure, Petey", she replied with a new confident tone. "Maybe we can have one last quickie. You know, just for old time's sake." Oh boy, he didn't like that.

At the elevator, she softly apologized for being so careless and using the term "quickie" within earshot of any living soul on Earth. She even offered to hold his meal for him, but he politely refused. And once in the elevator, he got a little firm with her, fool that he was.

"Okay, look", he began. "It's no secret that your aunt has left you a decent sum of money. Fine. And now I'm sure you wanna leave Richfield Inc. for good. Fine. However, so long as you're still here on these premises, you will address me with respect and not refer to me as Petey. Is that understood, Miss Ricci?"

As the 4th floor 'ding' sounded, she let out a slight giggle. His worried expression returned. "Well, I've got some rather somber news for you, Peeeeeeeeeeeeetey", she whispered behind a rather ominous grin, while staring straight into his eyes.

'Ding'! Fifth floor.

"If my calling you Petey is that upsetting to you, then this just isn't your day."

Karleen sneakily unhooked the thin leather strap from her purse.

The elevator door opened.

Her smile disappeared.

Mr. Jennison nervously exited the elevator and scurried to his office. She was quick to follow, like a shadow with an attitude. He went over behind his desk and she quickly dropped her purse, got behind him and wrapped the strap around the front of his neck and pulled, just tight enough to scare the dickens out of him. She lifted up her right knee and pressed it into the small of his back for support and leverage.

He panicked. "Karleen, please!" he shrieked. Knowing the chair was behind her, she expertly let go of his neck in a flash and he immediately fell back into the chair, which was on wheels. The chair rolled rapidly into the wall. Unfortunately for him, his balding head hit first and he was knocked unconscious.

Karleen just stared at the creep for a few seconds, fists clenching, lungs heaving and sighing hard. Horrid memories of the forced sex this monster blackmailed her into were filling her head. She was sweating and shaking, but he wasn't getting out this easy. No way.

She went over and locked his door. Then she quickly removed her boots so her feet wouldn't get all sweaty and uncomfortable while she was scurrying to and fro in the office. She then went over and began roughly removing his clothes, all of them. And when he was stark naked, she opened every draw of his desk until she found something good enough to do the trick. And sure enough...

Duct tape?? Geeee, now what would you need this for, Petey? Nevermind. Inquiring minds don't wanna know.

Before long, she had him steadfastedly taped to the chair. Not tight enough to cut his circulation, but he wouldn't be going anywhere until sometime later when one of his brown-nosers came in to check on him. And he started to come to just as she was applying a cold cloth to the back of his head, which had a serious lump from the trip he went on moments before. Yes, she was ripping mad. Yes, he was a piece of dirt, but Karleen wasn't heartless enough to just leave the guy there writhing in pain.

After compressing the cloth between his thick skull and the wall, she opened the middle drawer of his desk and found the journal. But as she picked it up, she saw a hand gun lying underneath it.

Karleen swiftly spun her face around to the creep in the seat.

"Oh my goodness, tell me you weren't just about to pull that on me! Tell me!!"

He looked at her, not really understanding what she was saying. His head was swaying a little and he was fussing with his wrists and ankles, which had duct tape wrapped around them.

This jerk was about to open the middle drawer when I wrapped that strap around his throat. And he was frantic! Frantic times call for frantic measures, Karleen. This loser may have been about to pull that revolver on me.

A wave of dizziness suddenly came over her and she stumbled to collect her thoughts. She needed air so she went into her office and opened her window quickly. About a half hour later, she had calmed down, filled a box with whatever she wanted to take on her last day, and struggled to carry it to the elevator. After making sure Petey was still secure,  of course.

'Ding'. The door opened and she stepped in as carefully as possible without dropping the box. Down to the 4th floor. 'Ding'.

Oh great! Someone's getting on now when I'm about to have a stroke from carrying this stuff.

Her eyes bugged when the door opened and there stood the cute stranger with the hot derriere. Just the guy she didn't wanna see right now. Okay, somebody shoot me, and get it over with.

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Just as Jay figured, Wendy's was jam-packed with customers. Fortunately, he was in the line that moved very fast. In fact, it moved along so smooth, he actually took notice. Especially in contrast to the line on his right, the same line he was very glad he didn't get behind.

By the time some heavy-set woman in that other line was done ordering for herself, four people ahead of Jay had already ordered, paid and moved on. And he heard some teenage girl behind the woman whisper to her shy-looking boyfriend, "About time that big momma got done ordering. I was about to say let's leave and go to Subway or somethin." The big woman actually heard what the girl said, and she turned around and glared. She then turned back to the cashier. "Okay, now for my two kids, I'd like... "

Thank God i got in this line. That girl's cleaning house, Jay thought incredulously.

The girl behind the Wendy's counter interrupted his train of thought. "Hi. May I help you?" He looked back ahead and was shocked that two people had already been served while he was watching the scene in the line over. He was done eating by 12:40 pm, and all he could think about was going back across the street where that pretty blond lady, her perfume, and her sweet red Camaro were.

Man, I have got to know what kind of perfume she was wearing. Mmmm. I could've jumped her right there.

He suddenly realized that he was thinking sinful thoughts, and he quickly apologized to the Lord under his breath. But he still couldn't stop thinking about her. The dark-blue suede hooded coat, the hip-hugging faded jeans tucked inside her high black boots.

And oh, that wink she threw at me. Wow! I'm hooked now, and I don't even remember her name. Shoot.

He threw away his trash and headed out to the crosswalk so he could quickly make his way back over to the factory, and he got quite a shock on his way there. As soon as he got to the street, the traffic just came to a standstill so he could cross. Wow, this was the second time today it happened. First, when he was on his way over to Wendy's, and now on his way back across the street. This was so odd. Normally, he'd have to wait for about ten minutes during rush hour to cross a busy street like this.

God, what're You doing here? Are You telling me something? Is there a reason why my line in the restaurant went so smoothly, and now traffic is just coming to a halt so I can cross back over?

First thing he noticed was that the blond lady's car was still in the lot. He almost wished it wasn't. Better if he never saw her again rather than possibly running into her before leaving. But he had no choice but to wait until the shipper returned, and who knew when that would be?

Turns out the shipper had just gotten back before Jay got to the minivan where the samples from his factory were waiting to be delivered.

The head shipper gave him directions to the room where they were to be taken, so he grabbed a dolly from the minivan, loaded the samples and headed on up.

At approximately 1:05 PM Thursday afternoon, Jay Backus was pushing the down arrow for the elevator. He noticed that the number 5 was lit up, which meant the elevator car was above him. While waiting, he glanced out the window he was next to and saw the blond woman's Camaro still parked.

Hmm. She's been here a while. Maybe Petey accepted her offer for that quickie. Oh well. He frowned. None of my business.

'DING!'

The elevator doors opened. And there she was, quite possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. Huffing and puffing, sweaty, looking worn out.

Mmmmmmm. That scent is stronger than ever. Oh boy, I could be in trouble.

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Tonya smiled rather sheepishly while shaving her legs in the bathroom. One foot on the floor, the other one on the tub's edge. She was smiling while thinking about the man she might marry someday. The man who she had just fed last night, and who couldn't stop complimenting her lasagna. The man who made her laugh about fifty times after supper when they were sitting together on the sofa.

Suddenly, one of her eyebrows raised. Bobby Randall, you sneak.

It just dawned on her that Bobby had his shoes and socks off before he and Tonya even reached the couch.

You rascal. You had no intentions of leaving last night, did you? Well, I hope your intentions weren't to sleep with me because even if I'd let you --which I wouldn't-- I never even gave it a second thought. I was having too much fun.

And she certainly was having a load of fun. Especially when Bobby started doing some of his stand-up material for her. She made it a habit not to go to bars or clubs, even comedy clubs. It just didn't seem the proper place for a good Christian girl like herself. So she wasn't prepared for some of the off the wall jokes Bobby had in his arsenal. However, she couldn't help but giggle when he grabbed the cable remote to use for a mic and began telling jokes like he was onstage.

"I was at karaoke the other night and this big dude with a beard and mustache gets up and sings Madonna's Like a Virgin, and something told me it was gonna be a long night. That premonition was further enhanced when that same guy winked at me on his way back to his seat. Come to find out my wise guy buddy taped a sign on my back that read I SUPPORT THE LGBT! with a big colorful rainbow loopin' over the words! It was my turn that night to be the designated driver, and needless to say, he wound up takin' a cab home."

Tonya quickly shook her head and brought a hand to her gasping mouth. "Oh no. Bobby, that's so bad," she said through what would be the first of many giggles.

She finished shaving and got in the shower once more just to quickly rinse off any excess hair and shaving cream. Roughly thirty minutes later she was fully dressed, wearing a long-sleeved lavender scoopneck spandex pullover shirt, dark blue knee-length denim skirt and black slip-on loafers. She almost felt cheap wearing the skirt, but after last night, she felt very comfortable and safe with Bobby, especially after he told her about the dream he had. That, coupled with the dream she herself had about him holding a beautiful blue Bible, made her feel quite relaxed.

Sigh. I wish that could be more than a dream, she thought solemnly. Heck, I'd even buy him a blue Bible just to see him holding it.

Bobby's horn suddenly sounded outside and she turned off all lights but the front one and quickly descended the stairs to the outside door. He was standing near the passenger door of his midnight blue Ford F-150 pickup, and as she approached he opened it for her.

"Wow! You look great, darlin'", he exclaimed. That heated up her cheeks a bit, and they were only shaded more when he leaned over and pecked her on the lips. And while closing her door, he said "Man, I can't believe I'm doing this."

When he got in on his own side, she touched his arm gently. "Bobby, if you've changed your mind... " He shot his stare over to hers. "Huh?? Whaddaya mean changed my mind? Never!" With his left hand on the top of his steering wheel he reached over and put his right hand on the nape of her neck. "Darlin', when I said I can't believe I'm doing this, I meant it just like that song by Survivor, The Search Is Over. He sang the two lines he was referring to from the song. The search is over, you were with me all the while."

She melted right there and blushed again. Not only from what he said, but also from what she suddenly felt going on inside her, all through her body, and it made her a bit uncomfortable. Yet at the same time, she now wished these weren't bucket seats because she wanted to cozy up to him.

He looked through the windshield, not knowing what she was thinking. Then back to her. "So, whaddaya wanna do? You wanna end this now, or are we going to the movies?"

She smiled in a way that told him it was all good and he said "Cool. The movies it is."

Oddly enough, he was taking her to see a Christian film, "Fireproof" starring Kirk Cameron. The movie was scheduled to start at 8:15 PM. It was now approximately 7:30.

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"Um, hi, is this spot taken?" Jay asked with a slight grin. He pointed to the big space at Karleen's left. She turned to where he was pointing, too emotionally drained to recognize his attempt at humor. "No, it's just me in here," she said. "Come on in." He smiled politely and stepped in, pulling the dolly behind him. The door closed and he suddenly realized that this beautiful woman was struggling to hold the box she had in her arms.

"Oh Goodness", he exclaimed. "Here, lemme take that." He carefully relieved her of the heavy load and then placed it on his dolly. She sighed deeply and swiped away some beads of perspiration with her coat sleeve. "Thank you", she said through a heavy sigh. "Are you new here?" It was all she could think to say, and she was actually proud of herself, considering.

"Actually, I was just here to deliver some samples of stucco spread and supplies from my company. How about you?"

Wow, I'm actually talking to her. Mmmm, and that perfume. Oh Lord, pinch me. I think I'm dreaming.

"How about me?" While thinking about the incident that had just taken place in Petey's office, Karleen let out a short laugh. "Well, today is actually my last day. My dear aunt just died last night and she left me a decent amount of money, so I'm gonna be all set for a while. It's all good, I guess."

Jay quickly looked at the floor. Oh man, I forgot. She just got done telling the lady downstairs about her aunt. Stupid me.

"Yes, I forgot to offer my condolences, hon. I heard you mention to Bev downstairs about your aunt. I'm very sorry." He would've liked to offer a hug, but that would have been a bit awkward.

"Thank you," she replied in earnest. "And it's Barb."

"Barb? What's barb?" He was lost.

"The woman in the office, her name's Barb, not Bev."

"Oh, okay. Now I see. Yeah. Ahem. Yeah, I was wondering what you meant by Barb. Haha."

Oh man, why don't you just ask her if she comes here often, you loon? This is such a waste of a perfectly good elevator ride. Sigh.

'DING!'

"Ground floor. Watch your step, folks. Have a great day. Thanks for riding Richfield Elevators." He was trying hard to be witty, but she didn't mind. At least he was showing her attention. It was nice and she was actually soaking it up. He pulled the dolly as gently as possible and headed out the door, across the lot to her Camaro.

While he did that, she retrieved her check from Barbara, who made no apologies for complimenting that delivery guy's looks and personality. Karleen half smiled, nodded in agreement, and then left the building for the final time. Like an obedient puppy, Jay stood by the car waiting for her to unlock the trunk.

"Thank you, um... "

"Jay!" he grunted while loading the box in the trunk. He turned back around, took her hand and gave her fingers a dainty kiss. "And the pleasure is all mine, fair maiden."

Karleen blushed and smiled helplessly. "Well now, what do you do for an encore, Jay?"

Yes!! Oh Lord! She wants me to ask her out. And there's no ring on her finger! Oh God, please tell me she's not married!

"How about a movie and dinner?" Jay surprised himself the way that just flowed from his lips. He simply could not believe how easily he asked out this lovely young lady, whom he had just met.

"Hold on." She opened her car door, reached in, took out her cell phone and said "Okay, gimme your phone number and I'll let you know later if I'm free." Of course, she already knew that she'd be available tonight for sure, but she didn't wanna seem too eager. Not even for this hunk.

And that was that. Karleen and Jay would be going out to see a movie tonight and everything was gonna be real smooth. Right?

Ummmm, yeah. Sure. I'll let you think that. For now.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bobby stopped at a red light behind two vehicles. As usual, Friday night was jamming on the main streets. Flashing lights coming, going, turning, a thump thump of a car stereo here, a car peeling away from a red light there, groups of college kids walking all over. Nothing new, but he loved it. Tonya on the other hand, wasn't fond of it at all. Especially at one point when a gang of hispanic youths at an intersection suddenly walked across the street in front of the truck, and Bobby had to slam on the brakes.

One of the boys just looked at him as if to say yeah that's right, you better stop when you see this gang, punk. The light turned red while they were still crossing and Bobby rolled down his window. Tonya gasped and thought Oh God, no! Bobby, please don't!

"Hey, which one of you is supposed to be the momma duck?" he yelled out.

One of the youths pulled out a blade and began walking over to the truck, and Bobby quickly put the shift in park. After revving the engine, he reached behind his seat and grabbed a stick that could've come right out of the movie Walking Tall. Tonya screamed, "Bobby, just let it go!" and all of a sudden one of the homies of the gang yelled, "Yo Chav! There go them punks now! Let's get 'em!" Both Bobby and Chav looked over to where the kid was pointing, and then Chav and the whole lot of 'em suddenly began sprinting toward another gang.

Bobby slammed his door shut and dropped the stick back behind him. Tonya's hand was still over her mouth and she was shaking a bit. The vehicles that were behind them had already driven past in the other lane and the light just turned yellow. Bobby gunned the engine, threw the shift back and took off as Tonya desperately reached for the handhold above the passenger window. 

"Oh God! Bobby, maybe you should just take me home." Two police cars sped past them going in the opposite direction, most likely toward the gang fight. Without looking at her Bobby replied, "Why? You don't like my driving? I can slow down, baby."

She suddenly got a bit light-headed, this was all happening so fast. She began to deliberately breathe in and exhale deeply and slowly to check herself. Then she looked at him somewhat sternly and said "First of all, I'd appreciate it if you don't call me baby. Okay?" She saw his eyes roll and his mouth frown, and got a little nervous. "Yeah well", she continued, "I'm sorry if I'm a bit boring for you, Bobby Randall, but I'm usually sitting at my pc on a Friday night posting and reading in the Christian Discussion Site I belong to, not speeding down main streets and jumping out of trucks to fight like some lost teenager!"

A confused look came over his face. "Lost teenager?"

"Yeah, lost. As in without Jesus, ya know?"

Bobby laughed. "Oh, okay. I forgot who I had in the truck with me. Sorry."

Tonya's face reddened. And then her heart sank. as she turned and looked blankly out her side window. Oh, darn it all. I should've known. I just should've known this would be asking for heartbreak and disappointment. Well, I guess it's time to go back home now and cry.

Just as she was turning to tell him to take her back home, he said, "Oh, speaking of which. I got a surprise for you. It's in the glove compartment. Go ahead, open it up." They approached another yellow light. He slowed down and there was a loud squealing of tires behind them. Then an angry horn. The mad driver who screeched and beeped swerved around and flew past them while yelling something, and you can be sure it wasn't "Whoa, that was close, huh buddy?"

Tonya stared at the crazy driver as he zoomed past them and through the red light, and then she looked over at Bobby with a comical look that told him she definitely needed to get out more often. "Come on, forget about him," Bobby said. "He thinks that just because he never slows down for yellow lights, noone else should either. Look what I bought for myself after work today. It's in the glove box." She turned the latch and opened the little door expecting to find a brand new pistol or shark knife or something.

Her eyes bugged out of her head and her mouth flew open in complete stupifying shock, and Bobby smiled as a horn beeped behind them. He began driving and glanced over at his pretty date again. "Surprised, huh? I started reading the Gospel according to Matthew about an hour or so before coming to get you. Boy, there's a lotta history in there about Jesus bein' born and all that other stuff. I looked it over twice, but there weren't nothin' in there about no little drummer boy." Tonya covered her face and shook her head with a cute giggle at that one, although she was still in shock over seeing the bright blue Bible in the glove compartment.

They finally reached the huge plaza parking lot where the cinema was. It was flowing with cars and people. He put his blinker on, got in the left turn lane and waited behind another vehicle at the red light. "I bought the New Living Translation Bible. I hope you don't mind. That King James dude, he's just too deep for me. Thou knowest what I meaneth? Hahaha."

He expected a chuckle for his witticism, but her wide O just turned into a wide happy smile. And she looked to him and said, "It's beautiful, Bobby. I'm shocked. But I have to know, is blue your favorite color, or they just didn't have any black Bibles there?" She hadn't yet told him about her dream where he was holding a beautiful blue Bible.

He was just about to explain that something about that particular Bible appealed to him when he suddenly spotted a mini riot going on in the row over from where he was parking the truck. Tonya looked up and said "Bobby, please. I just wanna see a movie with you without all the drama. Let the security people handle that."

To her dismay, he abruptly threw the shift in reverse and backed up, then shifted into drive and sped down the end of their row to get to the next one. "Security can't handle this, baby. Besides, if I'm seeing this right, it looks like five against two, and I ain't havin' none o' that."

Tonya suddenly clutched The Bible she was looking at to her chest and began praying for Divine Intervention. Just after she prayed the words Father In Heaven, Bobby slammed on the brakes and reached behind for his Walking Tall stick again. He opened the door quickly, and as the punks and their victims looked at him, he got out and said, "Hey! How y'all doin'? Is this a private party or can anyone join in?"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ah, life is good, Karleen thought cheerfully while removing her pink shirt from its hanger. She wanted to look appealing to her new flame tonight, but not eager.

In other words, don't let him know the truth. (giggle)

The shirt she decided upon was a long bell sleeve top with picot edging to the neckline and lace insert at the sleeve's head. And it would go great with her stretch satin slacks, which is why she chose them. Oh, no doubt he'll like this. I just hope he can handle all the lookers. And she didn't have to be conceited to know there would be some lookers and possibly some whistlers.

Oh well. Get used to it, Jay Jay, cause this girl isn't gonna wear a heavy old eskimo suit everytime she goes out just to keep the wolves from howlin'. And besides...

She was interrupted by the ringing of her phone. She checked out the caller ID and was shell shocked to see her ex boyfriend's name. What the heck?! What's he doing calling here? She wisely let the answering machine pick up.

"Karly, it's Scott. You there, doll? Look, you know my mom's number, right? I'm back livin' with her now and she's drivin' me up a flippin' wall! You know how she is, right hottie pants? Call me asap. Daddy's got caaaaaaanndy. Hahahaha. Remember that? Hey, seriously, I miss you. Me and Di broke up so... " BEEEEEP!

Karleen stared in horror at the answering machine for approximately 3 seconds before abruptly removing the phone receiver from its base and dropping it on the table like it burned her hands. Not because he was some escaped convict, not because he was a psychotic killer, not because he was an abusive jerk, but just because she suddenly remembered that she actually used to like it when he said "Daddy's got caaaaanndy" back when they lived together.

Crikey, woman! Where in blazes was your sense of dignity back then? Where was your sense of anything, for cryin' out loud?

She shook her head in disbelief as she grabbed her black strappy platform shoes from the bottom of her wardrobe closet. And then something else struck her as odd. Why now? Why tonight? Of all the nights this loser could call, why tonight? And why him? Of all her ex's! Why Scott, the biggest loser ever? She pondered it in her mind, not realizing that her hands were shaking a little.

That jerk had to cheat on me six freakin' times before I could bring myself to finally break away. Up to that point, I would've married him on a bet. And now I meet this gorgeous, intelligent, sensitive man, he asks me out and all of a sudden, yuck-mouth calls? I thought the Lord wants me to be with Jay.

"Oh my gosh!" she suddenly exclaimed as she began scurrying to the living room. "I almost forgot!" She yanked the cell phone from her coat's inside pocket and pushed the digits for Jay's house. He answered after three rings. They small talked for about 10 minutes before she finally told him she was free for the whole evening. The conversation took place just after 6, and he was at her place by 6:30.

Before the very moment he arrived that night, there was quite possibly nothing that ever looked so wonderful to Karleen's pretty eyes. It wasn't his looks or his attire, but he himself. This timely knight in her hour of distress.

He was wearing a bright green and black-striped dress shirt tucked into Lee blue jeans, with black leather mid-high Lugz boots. For a coat, he wore a mid-length black leather jacket. The first thing Karleen noticed was how gorgeous he looked at night with his hair slicked back,  probably with a wet-look gel. And the second thing she noticed was the vehicle he was driving. It was the company minivan he had back at the factory.

He politely opened her screen door while trying very hard not to ogle at how incredible she looked. She stopped and looked at him odd. "Hi, Jay. Ummm, where's your car?"

Jay turned around and looked at the minivan and then back to Karleen. "Oh, the boss said I could use this tonight 'cause I told him I have a date."

She cocked her head a little and giggled. "Honey, don't you have a car?"

Funny, he thought glumly. She didn't act shallow earlier today back at the factory. Guess I shoulda seen this coming. "Actually, no. I like to walk," he replied matter of factly. "Keeps me in shape. Is this gonna be a problem, cause if it is, I understand."

Karleen leaned over with a smirk and lightly kissed him on the lips. Then she stared into his gorgeous dark brown eyes and said softly, "Park the van. We'll take my car." Ten minutes later, they were doing 90 mph on the freeway headed towards the East Main Street exit where the movie cinema was located.

While in the car, Jay was practically snorting in the perfume scent that had filled the air around him. In fact, he was so consumed with inhaling the aroma that he didn't even focus on the road until she was in the plaza's parking lot searching for a spot. She decided on one and parked. He quickly jumped out and ran around to her door so he could play the chivalrous knight role.

He didn't notice she was smiling until the door was open because of the tinted windows. She got out and kissed him lightly again and thanked him. Then he pressed the electric lock and shut the door. She took his hand and they both smiled while beginning the long walk to the cinema building. However, they never made it to the the end of the row they were in, let alone to the cinema's doors twelve rows of cars away.

Five young men between 19 and 24 got out of a white Cadillac Escalade to go to the cinema themselves. They were there to see "The Ugly Truth", and just about all they talked about in the van while smoking their marijuana joints was how hot Katherine Heigl is. Then they saw Karleen as she and her date were walking by.

"Dayum! Who needs Katherine Heigl?" one of them yelled. "Yo, baby! What's goin' awnnn??!" another yelled.

Jay and Karleen wisely kept walking, but that wasn't going to be enough this night. First there were some whispers among the young men, and then a thud against the back of Jay's head when an empty plastic beer bottle hit him dead on.

Karleen was shocked as she heard the sound, and then she saw his head go forward. It would definitely take a great deal more than that to take Jay Backus out, and he was not about be shown up in front of the most stunningly beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on.

This wasn't what he wanted to do, but he felt as though there were no alternative. Not good,  Jay.  Almost ten years since you've even come close to scrapping and now you're gonna have to smack these troublemakers around in front of your date. Sigh. Please Jesus, Return quickly. I am so sick of this life.

Without turning around, he quickly unzipped his jacket, took it off and then handed it over to Karleen. Then he turned around and positioned himself.

"Uh oh. Tough guy took his jacket off. Yo, Rock. Tear this slacker up, bro!" It was the shortest of the five who seemed to be doing most of the yapping. Probably the one who supplied everyone with drugs. Obediently, the tallest and biggest of the five suddenly took off his own jacket and handed it to the guy nearest him.

While the two men were approaching each other, the other four began to circle around Jay, and Karleen was ready to take out her pepper spray so as to help her man the best she could.

As it turns out, she didn't have to. Just as Jay was telling the boys that it would take at least three of them just to get him on the ground, a dark, jacked-up pickup came squealing around the corner and came close to bowling them all over before coming to a stop at a hard slant. Some football player-looking dude jumped out with a big stick and rudely invited himself to the show.

And that's how Karleen and Jay met Bobby and Tonya, although it turns out that Jay and Tonya already knew each other. And it only got better from there. Praise Jesus In Heaven. Amen.

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Tonya Rae Lake, 42 years old, Born-Again Christian. She came to know the Lord five years ago, thanks to an incredible Miracle which God performed through Jay Backus.

She was raised in upstate New York, not even fifty miles south of Buffalo, and followed a traveling dreamer by the name of Kevin Buckey to Atlantic City, New Jersey roughly a week after she turned eighteen. The man didn't even know she was following him until after they arrived. He used her for every penny she had, which was a lot. He had serious mental problems but Tonya was too young and naive to even notice.

However, a New Jersey psychologist eventually diagnosed him as having a dangerous complex and personality disorder. He did so after Mr. Buckey was arrested for tipping a dinner table over in a posh hotel restaurant because a waiter politely informed him that they didn't serve chili and cheddar cheese dogs. But his mental health status was really called into question when police discovered that not only was he sober when pushing over the table, but he was flat broke and jobless.  So it wasn't bad enough that he couldn't use the excuse of being intoxicated as a reason for why he would cause such a scene to begin with, but he did it in a very expensive restaurant with nary a dime in his pocket. Needless to say, Tonya didn't follow him to the mental ward.

Instead, she spent the next twelve years working in casinos and restaurants, saving her money so she could start her own business one day. Then she returned to Springfield in '97 and ran into Jay Backus while attending her cousin Mark's Water Baptism at the 7 Doves Church of the Covenant on Elm Street. Jay was one of Mark's buddies in high school.

Suddenly, Tonya found herself doing whatever she could to visit Mark for the next year or so just to be around Jay as much as possible. However, she wasn't happy because --although she had such a hot crush on him-- all he wanted to do was preach to her about Jesus Christ and how there were many Bible Prophecies being fulfilled right before their very eyes as the years went. She was uninterested, to say the least. All she wanted to do was get him alone in bed.

Then on her cousin's 31st birthday, she was invited to the party and Jay was there, still as gorgeous and single as ever. She got drunk, and called him outside to help her find an earring she dropped. When he obliged, she made a pass at him. He wasn't having any of it. She accused him of being gay, threw a rake at his head and then she went home in a tiff.

She felt so bad for her childish actions that she stayed away from him deliberately until her 37th birthday. Jay was 32. Mark decided to throw her a surprise birthday party and the only surprise was when she walked in, saw Jay among the 20 or so friends and relatives who stood up and yelled "Surprise!" and immediately walked out, red-faced.

He felt so bad he ran out after her, but she took off in her jeep knowing he didn't have any wheels. So he told Mark to drive after her, and they played the chase game until she saw a house fire and pulled over. Jay and Mark followed suit and the three of them ran to see if there was anything they could do. The sound of sirens was still far off and a woman was trapped on the third floor of the house, screaming.

Her two children, a 4 year-old boy and a 7 year-old girl, were up there with her. She yelled down, "It started as a grease fire on the stove and there's no exit except for the kitchen door!" Suddenly, Jay yelled to Mark and Tonya "We have to pray!" and he got down on his knees and began to pray as hard as he had ever prayed.

Tonya was dumbfounded and livid. "Are you for real, man?!" she bellowed at him. "We need to get up those stairs before those people die, you Born-again fruitcake!" She ran into the hallway and up the stairs. Not even twenty seconds later, she returned screaming that the fire had eaten through the door and was consuming the upper hallway. Tonya could not believe her eyes when she saw that Jay was still hunched over and praying. She was about to grab him by the collar and pull him away from his kneeling position when he suddenly sprang up and ran to the fence that separated the yard they were in from next door's yard. He hopped the fence, grabbed a very long and thick green garden hose and ran up the hallway stairs of the house next door with wings on his feet.

As the fire engines were just arriving, Jay was already up on the roof of the house next door. The trapped mother was screaming from the window to the people on the ground that the smoke had just reached her room. She was coughing bad, and appeared to be losing strength. Jay did an incredible leap to the firehouse's roof, after which he wrapped the hose around the chimney and gripped both hanging hose ends as tightly as physically possible. He then began to climb down the side of the house to the window where the woman was no longer screaming.

The firemen were moving the truck as close to the house as possible. It was set back two empty lots in. While this was going on, Jay did a Superman leap through the paneless window, using the hose for leverage. Tonya just watched in awe as the man she was ready to pulverize for praying a few minutes ago was now using every ounce of strength he had to somehow hold the two children outside the window while thick black smoke poured out above his head.

Everyone on the ground could hear the fireman on the ladder scoop yell "Holy smokes!" as he was on his way up. "Just a few more seconds, brother! I'm almost there!" The little boy was half in and out of shock, coughing a little, crying and wide-eyed. The girl was just crying hard, as much for her mommy as anything else.

Sometime within the next five minutes, the kids were safely back down and the fireman was on his way back up to get Jay. But the smoke and fire behind Jay were too much and he managed to grab hold of the garden hose that was still looped around the chimney. He started to descend down the side of the house, and that's when the roof gave. The chimney went in with it. Without even thinking about it, Tonya closed her eyes tight and screamed "God, please! Don't let him die!" and she heard a Voice as clear as day that blocked out every noise around her. The Voice said, "have faith, Tonya. I've got him"

Somehow, Jay held on until the fireman got to him. After the ladder was down, Jay was out of the scoop being tended to by EMT's. Tonya crouched down and grabbed his hand. Teary-eyed, she apologized three times and then asked if he spotted the mother up in the room. Jay answered softly that he saw her lifeless body lying near the base of the wall near the window. And he desperately wanted to tell Tonya that he heard a very motherly-sounding thank you, fine sir spoken from the body's unmoving lips, but he was too weak to talk any longer. There were tears streaming down his cheeks as he drifted into unconsciousness from exhaustion. Within the next hour, everyone was cleared away from the fire-engulfed house, and it finally imploded.

A week following the fire incident, Tonya visited Jay at his apartment and she asked him what made him suddenly smarten up, stop praying and do as he did. He smiled and took her hand. "I stopped praying because God had finished telling me what to do."

"You mean He told you to do all that?" she asked in amazement.

"Tonya darling, if you knew how literally scared to death I am of heights, even now after what I did on those roofs, you would ask the Lord into your heart right now!" Jay said with a smile. And that's when she told him about the Voice that spoke to her right after she begged God to protect him. And he smiled even brighter as he showed her a newspaper article he had just finished reading.

The reporter who did the story and took the photographs from the third floor of a house across the way called Jay's rescue mission a miracle, not only for what he did for the children, but also because he himself survived. Especially considering that when the roof caved in and the chimney followed, the hose just stayed in that same loop without a single chimney brick in sight. The roof caved in almost down to the second floor, and the chimney that the green hose was wrapped around went right along with it, yet the hose never budged. That, coupled with the fact that the fire marshal himself couldn't understand how Jay's hands hadn't completely burned off from both the friction of the hose and the heat from the fire, which should have surely made the hose ends very hot, only served to further prove that God's Providence was involved in it all.

At some point in the next five minutes, Tonya knelt down and said the sinner's prayer while holding Jay's hands, and she was baptized about a month later. And a week before her dad passed away, he told her that he had a visit from The Lord, who told her dad that she would be watched over after his passing.

And so it was rather a case of justice served when five years later, the man she was on a date with wound up coming to Jay's rescue as he was about to be pummeled by five punks in the Springfield Cinemas plaza parking lot.

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  Jason Gregory Backus, 37, Born-Again Christian {non-denomenational}, Saved at age 20 back in 1992 after reading Hal Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" and Richard A. Melanson's "Neither Cold War nor Detente?: Soviet-American Relations in the 1980's".

He was born to an atheist dad and a non-practicing catholic mom and he was in trouble with both the school officials and police while still in the 8th grade. Smoking cigarettes and pot were the daily norm for him and his buddies. Finally, he was sent to a training school where he learned how to fight, and he was soon one of the toughest boys there. Not long after, he was adopted by a Christian family in Springfield, a decent-sized city of roughly 550,000 citizens.

His new family, the Powells, didn't force him to go to their Church on Sundays, and that was just fine with him. However, they were rather disappointed. But he was in the ninth grade and had his own friends, two of whom were over the house many times. The good news was, they knew and liked his friend Mark already. He was at Church with his family every weekend and every Wednesday night for Bible study.

One day, Jay's adopted mother took Mark aside and she asked if he had ever heard Jay talking about God. Mark's reply was, "Oh sure, when he takes His name in vain. Other than that, not really." The reply was meant to be witty, but Mark was as gloomy about it all as anyone. Jay was already 16 at the time and they were afraid if he didn't come to Jesus soon, he never would.

The Church Pastor learned of their fears through the Congregational grapevine and he deliberately did a sermon that weekend concerning "election" and how God already knows who will come to the Kingdom and who won't, and if we're meant to be saved, it will happen. The Lord will personally see to it.

"Of course, that doesn't mean that we don't have to continue setting good examples for others and attempting to plant seeds", he explained. "Oh no. In fact, when you do so and it actually does bring someone to the Kingdom, you can be quite sure that the Lord was using you the whole time. And doesn't that make you feel good knowing that He is using you for His own good purpose?" A hearty "Amen!" sounded from the crowd.

Jay turned eighteen on the 4th of December, 1990, while in the 12th grade, and his parents were surprised that he went to school that day. Unfortunately, he had a reason. He and a few friends were planning to celebrate his birthday by hot-wiring and stealing the principal's Pontiac Firebird and driving it to the cinema. His buddies were going to treat him to Stephen King's new movie, "Misery".

They made it as far as the opening credits before the police came in and grabbed them. Turns out Mark went and told the principal of their plans the day before it happened but Principal Duffy didn't believe him. Then when one of the teachers phoned his office and asked why she couldn't see his car, he panicked and eventually called the police.

Jay was expelled from school for the rest of the year, and the only reason noone was incarcerated was because there were no witnesses to the actual stealing of the car. Besides that, Mrs. Powell went in and practically begged Mr. Duffy not to press charges.

Well, needless to say, Jay wound up paying dear Mark a visit about a week after the incident. One of his four girlfriends dropped him off a block from Mark's house, and he cut through backyards till he reached the Lymans' driveway. Then he snuck down their basement and up to the first floor to wait.

Mark already had a car that he got from mom and dad on his sixteenth birthday, so all Jay had to do was wait until he heard the motor in the driveway. Fortunately for Jay, the Lymans' pooch had been put to sleep a few months earlier, so there would be noone and nothing inside when Mark walked in. Families such as the Lymanses didn't just run out to the local pound to replace a 14 year-old dog right after it died.

Mark didn't even notice Jay on the sofa until after he went upstairs, put his book bag away, used the flush and came back down to get a piece of pie from the kitchen. Jay had his Nike Air Flight sneakers off his feet and tucked under the coffee table. He was lying on the sofa, arms under the back of his head.

Mark let out a panicking gasp upon first seeing Jay because he didn't even recognize him at first. Finally it registered and he said "Kid, whaddaya doing here? My parents'll freak if they... "

Jay jumped off the sofa and grabbed Mark. He slammed his back into the front door. "What? You thought I wasn't gonna come lookin' for ya after you freakin' squealed on me, rat? Huh?!" And before Mark could squeak out an apology, Jay thrust his knee hard into his ex-friend's stomach, grabbed the back of his head and flung him over onto the sofa he was just lying on.

Jay started to take off his black plastic digital watch, but stopped when he heard Mark crying hard. He looked at him in disgust. "What the ..? Kid, you're crying? You ratted me out, so I come here to kick your tattle-tale behind, and you're crying?" He went over and pulled Mark up roughly. "Huh?!"

"Yeah, I am!" Mark yelled back. "I'm cryin' cause I love you like a brother and you're the biggest punk I know, and it kills me. What the heck's the matter with you, Jay?"

Jay let out a loud laugh. "And the Oscar goes tooooo ..!" he bellowed, before flinging Mark back on the couch. He then put his sneakers back on and left the house without closing the door behind him.

The Powells tried talking Jay into joining the army, but he flatly refused. He went out and got a job as a busboy at Claudia's and was bringing home some decent pay. His parents told him that if he wasn't going to buy a car and he was going to stay under their roof, he would have to start paying them gas money and rent. He had never once had a beef with his foster parents, so he agreed. Besides, he had it made there. Free food, free laundry service, and his own TV and stereo.

In July of 1991, he began dating one of Claudia's waitresses, although the owner of the restaurant strictly disallowed dating among coworkers. Her name was Denise and she was 24. He slept at her house at least two nights a week and she was constantly buying him beer and pot. They hung out with a couple who lived upstairs. Gene, 29 and Barbara, 30.

One day at his own house, while he was loading clothes and hygiene products into his gym bag to crash at Denise's, Mrs. Powell knocked and walked in. Jay was only in his underwear and socks. Without looking at her, he said cheerfully "Yo, mommy! What it is?" She wasn't amused.

"Jason, we need to talk." She sat on the edge of his bed as he was closing the bag's zipper. He went to the closet to get a pair of jeans. "What's on your mind?" He was zooming around like he was late for something. She tried to remain calm. "Dear, can you please slow down for a second? You're making me dizzy, and I wish to speak with you about a serious matter before you leave and spend another night over that hussie's house."

He quickly put the cap to his Old Spice cologne down on his bureau. "Mom", he said while walking over to her. "You don't even know this girl. How can you call her... ?"

"Okay, forget I said that. I don't want an argument over this. Look, just sit down. Please, it's all I ask. Just a few moments of your time."

He sat down next to her and jokingly said "Okay, but I'm timing you. You've got three minutes" She ignored that and put her hand gently on his lap, and then proceeded to inform him that Mr. Powell was in the hospital. He had just recently been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer that had spread far and fast. He'd be fortunate to live another two years.

To his mother's horror, Jay looked at his watch and said "Uh oh. Times up" and laughed. Then he arose from the bed and said "Seriously, is there anyway to send flowers? I promise, next checkday I will." He said this as he was grabbing the bag and scurrying out of the bedroom and down the stairs. After he had left, Mrs. Powell cried a long cry and prepared to go visit Mr. Powell in the hospital.

She and Jay didn't see much of each other for the next year or so. And he was so busy running around he didn't even care that they weren't together for his birthday or Christmas. Yes, Satan had quite a stronghold on Jason Backus and it seemed as though nothing and noone could ungrip it. That is, until the day he got into a bad fight with Denise.

He knocked her unconscious after she whacked a broomstick over his head. They were both blitzed, and Jay grabbed his belongings and zig-zagged home and fell asleep on the hood of his mother's Buick. Upon awakening at 7:50 a.m. he stumbled into the house and went to the kitchen for some orange juice. As he was drinking it out of the container, he caught sight of a little line of smoke going by his eyes.

Puzzled, he looked to his right and was startled to see his mom sitting at the kitchen table smoking a cigarette. And going by the pile in the ashtray, she had been there for some time. He put the juice on the table and sat down at the seat next to her. "Mom, since when do you smoke?"

She looked at him with red and black eyes. "For about a month now. Why? Is the smoke bothering you, dear?" She wasn't being sarcastic. "No, not at all. The only thing that's bothering me is seeing a cigarette in your hand. What's goin' on? Where's dad?"

She took a half drag and started putting it out. "He's in the hospital on life support. Doctors say he won't live to see Valentine's Day." She started to weep a little.

Jay's jaw and his heart sank at the same time. "Oh mom! Oh my god!! I'm so sorry!!" He went over and hugged her hard. She welcomed it immensely. She had wanted to see some sort of emotion from this young man for some time now, and better late than never. It was the good Christian heart in her that believed that.

For the next week, he and his stepmom went to the hospital twice a day to visit Mr. Powell, and Jay helped her clean the house spic and span. She quit smoking and he blew her mind when he told her he wanted to attend Church on Sunday. She was so excited that she called the pastor Saturday night and told him the wonderful news.

The next day in Church, Jay looked better to his mom than he had ever looked since the first day she saw him. And he was very moved over the incredible welcome he received by the whole congregation. It was enough to make him promise to be there the following weekend. And they had a big Sunday dinner prepared in his honor after the service. It was incredible, and he was moved to tears. Mark sat next to him that day for Church service and when it came time to look to your fellow Brother and Sister and shake hands and say hello, they hugged for almost a whole minute.

Jay asked his mom while driving to the hospital if they were always like that, and she said no. They were nice and friendly and sweet, but she had rarely seen that side of most of them before it was announced that Jay would mow be a regular attendee.

The pastor stopped by the house personally to offer him about twelve books to read. He read two of them during his visits with his stepdad in the first three weeks of January. One book was Hal Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" and the other one he read was Richard A. Melanson's "Neither Cold War nor Detente?: Soviet-American Relations in the 1980's". After reading them, his whole perspective on Christ's love, His prophecies and the religious and political life in general was thrown for a complete loop.

On January 26th, 1992, Jay's dad, Donald Stanley Powell, passed away in peace.

The congregation wept, as did a large number of Springfield's populace.

Jason was there to see him breathe his final breaths, and he told everyone in Church the following Sunday on a stack of Bibles that he saw a faintly illuminated something ascend up and through the ceiling at approximately the same time the heart machine blipper went flat. And he told the pastor that he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart so that he could someday be with his stepdad again. The pastor announced it aloud at the very next service with a tear forming in his eye.

The congregation wept again, this time with joy. The Lord was pleased. Amen.

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Back to the present, Friday, September 22, 2009. The time is approximately 8:05 P.M.

Apparently, what was beginning to look like a five-on-two battle royal, with five punks about to jump a nice couple who were just there to see a movie, was now a five-on-four, thanks to a cool guy in a huge F-150 and his big stick.

It would have been five-on-five, but the girlfriend of the big guy with the stick had never been in a fight and didn't plan on joining in on this one either. Besides, she was too busy with her eyes closed, praying.

The shortest of the five men said to noone in particular, "C'mon, guys. We can take 'em. It's still us five against them two." He was standing behind two of his buddies, which probably meant that --if it came to swings-- he'd wisely wait until the two strangers were on the ground trying to get back up before he would jump in and either attack one of the two girls or just start kicking someone in the head.

Bobby looked over to the short fool with the big mouth and then looked back to his date. "Yo, Tonya. You can have that meatball. And please, go easy on him, he looks kinda young." Then he noticed she had her eyes closed. "Umm, babe", he whispered, "whaddaya doin'? I need you for backup."

Suddenly, Jay looked over and instantly recognized his best friend Mark's cousin, Tonya Lake. "She's doing what we should all be doing", he said to Bobby. "She's praying."

While one of the punks was flicking open a butterfly knife and saying "Good idea, you're gonna need God", Tonya opened her eyes after hearing the word praying and looked over to the source of the voice. Her eyes lit up and she flew out of the van. "Jay! Oh my gosh!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and Bobby said "No, wait. Lemme guess. You two have met before." Oblivious to what he just said, Tonya suddenly spun around to face the bewildered thugs.

"I just want you all to know that I was in that truck praying to God for His assistance in this matter, and now that I see just who I was praying for, I suggest y'all just mosey on along and forget about fighting against a man who the Lord always looks out for!" The men just stood there, somewhat bemused. Tonya was not street fight material, and her appearance showed it.

Karleen just stared at Jay and Tonya curiously. Then the punk who pulled out the blade laughed and looked over to where the short loud mouth was and said, "Yo Ray. I'm really scared now, how about you?" The person to whom he was speaking had recently ducked behind the one who took off his jacket a minute ago. So the guy with the knife backed up and looked behind the big guy and said "Dude, what're you doin'?"

Then the big one stepped aside and the short fool stared dead into Tonya's eyes, grinning like a child who had just been caught stealing, and she knew his face in a flash. "Raymond Lipton! You brat! What the heck are you doin' here?" she shot out at him.

Bobby suddenly looked at Jay's date, and he asked, "Excuse me, does she know you too?" Karleen just giggled, shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. Tonya began walking over to little Ray, and the big guy with the blade asked "Yo, who is this lady, your ex baby sitter?" Everyone except Tonya and little Ray laughed at that. Bobby said to the big guy "Hey, that was funny. You got an agent?" The big fella snickered back and said "Yeah, I actually got a gig on Letterman next week." Then their attention was drawn back to Tonya.

"Why are you picking a fight with my friends? Huh? Answer me!" Ray-Ray was noticeably shaken up and embarassed by this scene. "Tonya, c'mon, can we talk about this in private? Please?!" He jerked his head in the direction of his buddies while pleading.

Then there was the whoooop! of a squad car that had just pulled up, and everyone moved aside so it could cut in, and then two more came racing down the row.

About an hour later, the police were done checking out everyone's ID's. Bobby's stick was confiscated and the punk with the switchblade was taken into custody for possession of a knife with a blade over 3".

Anyway, it turns out that Tonya had once rented the apartment on the other side of her house where Bobby now lived out to a nice family, and they eventually moved out with no problems. However, Tonya went over to see what work had to be done before renting it out again and she caught Raymond Lipton inside. He was spray painting some blue words on the empty living room walls.

Obviously, when he turned around and saw her standing there he freaked, and he even had an accident in his jeans. Tonya just stared down at the puddle forming under his pants with her mouth agape, and then she looked back up to him as he suddenly made a beeline past her and out the door.

He went to her apartment the next day and pleaded with her not to call the police, and he said he would accept whatever punishment she could think up. Her suggestion was that he rip all the wallpaper down in the living room and re-paper it. She was planning to do it anyway for the new tenant, so this would save her the aggravation.

"Well?" Karleen asked bemusingly while waiting on the coffee and bagel she ordered at the Howard Johnson's restaurant they all went to after the movie, "What was he spray painting on the walls? 'Shorty was here'?"

Bobby chuckled. "Good one, Karleen." She smiled and thanked him.

Tonya replied, "I'm not sure the exact words, but it was something like Ray was here '07! call me up for a slice of heaven! And I walked in before he could paint the phone number.

"Oh my gosh", Karleen said. "I'm glad I wasn't sipping on my coffee when you said that. The whole blasted table'd be covered now." Jay laughed and she turned to him and gently kissed his ear. "I like your laugh, sexy eyes," she said softly. He smirked a little and Bobby couldn't resist. He reached across the table and gently caressed Jay's cheek with the back of his fingers. "She's right, ya know", he teased in a soft voice.

"You!" Karleen yelled to Bobby. He quickly pulled his arm back and said "Hey, it was a joke!" Jay looked at Karleen, who was pointing her finger at Bobby. "Now I know where I remember you. You're Bobby Rydell, the comedian over at the Knee Slapper. Right?" He chuckled. "Close. Bobby Rydell sang "Wild One" and "Volare" back in the 60's. I'm Bobby Randall. But here." He handed her a packet of sugar. "You were close, so you get second prize."

Jay laughed aloud at that one. "Oh, so that's why just about everything you say is so darn funny. When people say 'Man, you're a real comedian', they're not kidding. Haha."

"Yeah well, I was. Until last week, that is," Bobby lamented. "I was fired for attacking some heckler in the audience who threw a tomato at me. Now I'm finished. Good thing I save my money for a rainy day. And it's a good thing my rent's so low." Tonya looked at him when he said that and he threw a sly wink at her. She grinned.

"Ya know", she noted, "you really shouldn't pass that dream you had off as a fluke."

"What dream's that?" Jay asked. Tonya looked over and replied "Jay, an Angel of the Lord visited Bobby in a dream just before he got fired and He told him that He didn't want him on stage doing stand-up comedy anymore. He told Bobby he was going to be doing the Lord's will very soon."

Karleen spoke up. "Hmm, how ironic. Just before my aunt Dolores died last night in the hospital, she told me the Lord has plans for me, too. She knows I don't really believe in that stuff, but that didn't stop her from filling me in. And she told me that I would finally find what I've been looking for real soon, but I don't know what she... " Her eyes lit up. She looked over at Jay with a slight gasp.

"Oh wow. Unless she meant the internet. She said I will finally find what I've been searching for. Well, for the last month or so, I've been hitting the dating sites online to try and find the right man. Get it? I've been searching online for a man and Aunt Dee told me I'd finally find what I've been searching for, and whoever or whatever it is will help me carry out God's plans."

Then she frowned and continued, "Yeah but, if she was referring to a man and that man is you, then wouldn't it make sense that you would have to believe in Jesus or something?"

Jay looked over at Tonya who glared back at him questioningly. "Um, Jay darling", she said. "Haven't you informed Karleen yet?" Jay smiled and then turned to Karleen.

Karleen shot a puzzled expression over to Tonya and then asked "Informed me of... ?"

Jay put his arm around his new love interest's neck and said "Well, I was saving it until I was sure you weren't a dream that I've yet to awaken from. But it's obvious that you're definitely not a dream, unless this is the longest dream in history. How about I explain it all tomorrow after dinner?" He laughed and kissed her lightly on the tip of her nose. She smiled and kissed him back on his nose. "It's a date, brown eyes," She snuggled up to his shoulder. Bobby and Tonya embraced too.

Karleen put her hand on Jay's. Yup, she thought, still smiling. Life is good.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Scott Henry Gentry, 32 years old, 5' 5" tall, approximately 155 lbs, short dark brown hair, a few tattoos, smokes non-filtered Pall Malls and drinks the liquor store's cheapest beer unless someone else is buying. He was recently fired from his job for saying "his problem, not mine" in reply to a coworker who warned him that the boss said noone's allowed to smoke in the lunchroom anymore, ever. Turns out the boss was within earshot when he said it. Scott now lives with his mom, who isn't exactly thrilled with the idea. And she lets him know it whenever possible.

He dropped out of junior high school after staying back four times, once in the 6th grade and thrice in the 7th. In jail three times between ages 21 and 26. First offense was at age 21: breaking & entering his old job and then breaking into a house later on that night. He served 10 months in miminum security. Second offense was at age 22: DUI and leading police on a high-speed chase for a stretch of twelve miles. He served 18 months in minimum security with 6 months of AA. Third offense was at age 24: beating his father with a snow shovel until the man was almost unconscious over a ten dollar bet in which the loser -dad- didn't pay on time. For that, he served just over 2 years in medium security.

Then on his 27th birthday, he met Karleen Ricci. She was one of his older sister Patty's club friends. And Patty wanted to give Scott any reason possible to get out of their parents' house because she feared he would attack dad again for whatever reason. And she didn't really like Karleen too much because the witch was so pretty that all the guys wanted her, including the cuties Patty dated. So she thought this was a pristine opportunity to get rid of both of them.

Karleen wasn't one to go for looks, so she wasn't turned off too much by the fact that Patty's brother was shorter than she, or by the fact that he had a scar on his left cheek. And after he had a few beers and a couple of mixed drinks his confidence shot right through the roof. About two hours into the party, she was upstairs with him in his parents' bedroom. Not for long, though. He didn't have any condoms and he wasn't touching her without one, no matter how much she had to drink. Needless to say, he bought a pocketful of them the next time he went to the pharmacy store.

Anyway, about five months later they were living together and it was hell on Earth for poor Karleen. Scott liked his women, he liked to get high sometimes, he liked his beer even more, he liked his fast cars and he hated working. She discovered all this during their first year together.

She had thrown him out so many times, it didn't even bother her anymore when he wasn't in bed. She was just so used to it. But she always took him back. Whether he smacked her, beat her, cheated on her or stole money, she would always take him back. One day, he grabbed her by the throat and threatened to kill her because one of her friends beat his sister Patty up real bad. Turns out the girl beat his sister up after finding out through a friend that she deliberately fixed Karleen up with Scott because she hated her. But of course that's not the story Scott heard.

And fortunately for him, he wasn't home one day when one of Karleen's male coworkers followed her home from the office without telling her. His intent was to try and catch Scott outside and then hammer him good. You see, Karleen had gone into work wearing sunglasses because of a black eye Scott gave her. Of course, she denied it, and actually insulted a few people's intelligence by insisting that she absent-mindedly walked into a door. After finding out that the guy followed her home, she vowed to quit if he or any of the other guys ever did it again, although she was a bit moved by the gesture.

Then Scott cheated on her one more time during their fourth year together, and she made plans to leave him. Turns out she didn't have to because he was already sneaking his stuff over to the house of the girl he was cheating with. Then a month later, she found out that the harlot in question was one of her so-called best friends from college, Diane. Karleen was arrested for grabbing Di by the hair and slamming her face into a shopping cart when she ran into her at a supermarket one day. She was let out on bail and Diane promised not to press charges if Karleen just moved out of the city.

So she moved. She went back to her cousin Donna's house in Springfield and she could not believe the incredible welcome she received from her aunt Dolores. And then, her aunt got her a job at Richfield Synthetics, inc.

Auntie Del was one of those women from the old school, so to speak. Worked her tail off every single day with no complaints, plus she cross-stitched beautiful table cloths at incredible speed and even more incredible accuracy. She would put away all the money that wasn't for necessary daily spending. She had been doing that for approximately fifteen years, and she always felt bad that she hadn't been able to do so when Karleen was living with her and her hubby.

So she vowed to place her lovely niece in her will. And she had a very strong feeling that her Lord Jesus wanted her to do just that, for whatever reason. She never asked The good Lord to explain anything, she merely obeyed with a smile.

Anyway, getting back to Scott, it just so happens that he can't read very well, so he hardly ever bothered to buy the newspaper. However, his mom had more time to read since her husband passed away, and she spotted Dolores's name in the obituary column. Her eyes bugged when she read that the old bag was survived only by her daughter and niece, Karleen Ricci!

Remembering how many times Karleen the fool took her boy back no matter what he did, she actually woke her lazy son Scott up from one of his habitual afternoon naps to tell him about Karleen's well-off aunt passing away. "Well-off, dear. As in financially well-off! Remember when you ran into Donna last year and she told you how her mother puts away every dime?" she kindly reminded her half-witted boy.

Miss Henry figured all of that money would obviously be dispersed between Dolores's daughter and Karleen. Being the consummate busybody, Scott's mom was much more privy to everything about Karleen and her family than Scott was. She had a memory like an elephant, especially when money was involved.

So Scotty boy called his darling ex girlfriend the very next time mother was out on an errand and left a message. He did this because he didn't want mommy knowing that he was all for getting back with Karleen and scoring that dough. Funny thing was, mommy could have cared less about the money. She just wanted this good-for-nothing moocher out of her house once and for all.

Incredibly enough, it was actually surprising to Scott when Karleen didn't return his call. And it also ticked him off, royally. So he borrowed his friend's cell phone and set off to pay the blonde beauty a visit. It wasn't too difficult to find out where she had moved. Just a matter of knowing who to call.

He heard through the grapevine that her aunt Dolores's wake would be between 8 and 10 pm, so he made sure he was at her apartment by 6:30. It was already dark and he had a screwdriver for the basement window. In a matter of two minutes he was ascending the stairs from the basement floor to the first floor. He could hear Mariah Carey's "Vision of Love" playing on Karleen's bedroom stereo.

Good. She was in her room away from the cellar door. But I just wanna give you one solitary chance to prove that you weren't home last night when I called, he thought. I want so bad to believe that that's why you didn't pick up, honey. On the other hand, I can't wait to find out why the flippin' line was busy when I called back like twenty times.

He dialed her apartment number and he could hear a phone close by begin to ring.

Footsteps.

Mariah Carey's song was suddenly cut off during the second ring.

It rang a third time.

Then a fourth.

CLICK!

Karleen's precious voice.

"Hello. I'm not home, so leave a message. You know the routine." BEEEEEP.

"Hey darling, it's Scott". He spoke just loud enough for her to hear because he didn't want her to know that he was in the basement. "I know you're home, baby. C'mon. Pick up. I need to talk to you. Please, honey. I miss you. (pause) Hello? Karleen, pick up the dang phone already! What're you doing, staring at it?" BEEEEEEEP!

Scott was shaking with fury, and a little hurt as well. Before she could think of taking the phone off the hook, he hit the redial and got a busy signal. The answering machine hadn't reset. He heard footsteps walking back to her bedroom as he hit redial. The phone began to ring again. Footsteps returned. CLICK! Her stupid message. BEEEEEP!

His voice clearly illustrated his burning ire. "Fine. Just let it never be said that I didn't give you a chance, blondie," he growled into the phone. Then he clicked the cell's off button and put it back inside his jacket. After taking a deep breath, he slowly ascended the rest of the way up the cellar stairs, knowing what must now be done.

As he slowly pulled the switchblade out of his jacket's inside pocket, he heard Karleen mumble something while walking back to her bedroom. "CHITCK!" The switchblade was now out. He then carefully turned the cellar door knob and pushed open the door as slow and deliberate as possible, so as not to be heard. A new song by Mariah began playing on the bedroom stereo. He crept over to her door and saw her opening a bureau drawer, wearing nothing but a black bra. She was facing away from him and she pulled out a pair of dark purple thong undies.

Mmmmm. Nice. What a shame I'll never see you wearing those again, and neither will anyone else, wench.

He got inside her basement so easy, he crept up the stairs without making much noise, he talked into her answering machine in a voice just audible enough to be heard over the mic, he opened the blade of his knife without her knowing. He even opened the door and crept up to her room without her turning around. At this rate, he'd be close enough to breathe on the back of her neck before she even noticed he was there. It was that easy thus far.

Yeah, that was until the cell phone he dialed her apartment with started ringing from inside his jacket pocket.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bobby was at the flower shop picking out a dozen roses for Tonya. It was something he hadn't done in quite some time, buy a girl flowers. He had no problem though, because he felt for possibly the first time in his entire life that this girl was very special and worth it. He waited while the florist prepared the bouquet to look real nice and pretty for whomever the big man with the blonde hair was planning on giving them to. While waiting, his mind drifted back to the long chat he had with Tonya in his Ford pickup outside her apartment early that morning.

Wow, she really laid it on thick with that religious stuff. Man oh man, I didn't know there was so much to God and His Son Jesus. Whew! I'm gonna hafta read the Bible a lot in the coming months. Unless of course that Rapture thing Tonya mentioned happens sooner than I'd like it to.

The bells above the entrance door jingled as another customer walked in. Bobby was rather impressed at how much time the lady waiting on him took with wrapping the flowers. She offered him a pen and told him to write something on a little piece of paper for the recipient of the bouquet.

He took the pen and thought on what to write for a few seconds before deciding. "Okay, I got it." He wrote  To Tonya From Bobby. Thanks for being there for me, sweetheart.  Then he returned the pen to the lady and looked behind him. There was a woman standing there waiting and he apologized to her for the wait. She smiled and assured him it was no problem.

Finally, Bobby paid for the flowers and was about to head for the exit when the woman who was behind him gently took hold of his big arm. Before he could say a word, she held out a small oblong piece of paper.

Taking it, he asked "What's this for? Am I being invited to a birthday party or something?" With a smile,  the woman replied "It's a Bible tract, sir. The Lord just told me to give it to you." She then turned around and began telling the florist what she wanted as if handing out Bible tracts to complete strangers was something she did all the time. And in fact it was.

Bobby shrugged, thanked the lady, tucked the Bible tract in the pocket of his blue and white flannel shirt, and resumed his tracks for the exit door. He glanced at his watch while climbing into the pickup's cab. It was going on 2:00 and he wasn't very hungry so he just decided to drive over to Tonya's apartment and wait there for her to return from work.

While waiting at a red light on busy Diamond Hill Boulevard, Bobby happened to glance over to his right and see three youths behind a four-story house who were getting ready to pulverize another teen who was backing away.

Not on my watch, punks.

Bobby quickly swerved over and out of the left-turn lane to park his pickup in front of the house next to the one those guys were behind. He reached behind his seat to grab the walking tall stick that wasn't there. "Dag nabbit. I forgot to replace that." He slammed his door shut and walked behind the truck, opened the tailgate, and grabbed a long crow bar. A fierce expression painted his face as he entered the driveway between the two houses. As daddy once told me, where there's a weapon, there's a way.

As he reached the back yard, one of the three punks was throwing a snap kick at the lone wolf, and he barely missed. And Bobby almost smiled cheerfully at the irony of who the lone wolf was. Just as another punk was moving in on the solo fighter from the rear, Bobby raised the crow bar to his chest with both hands and called out, "Yo, Chav! I've been lookin' all over for you, bro. Where you been?"

Then he began walking up to the four of them. Two of the gang youths, a white and a hispanic, took out blades. The other one picked up a semi-long plumbing pipe that was lying next to his feet. Chav didn't recognize this big dude with the crowbar from the previous day in traffic when he took out his own blade after Bobby's "momma duck" comment. Of course, he wasn't about to let the punks know that. As far as they were concerned, this guy was his uncle or something.

The three of them abruptly moved in a triangle around Bobby, but the back door of the house suddenly slammed open. An older man in his mid to late fifties came trudging out while fiercely holding onto a strong chain which was connected to the choke collar of a mean-looking rottweiller. Needless to say, the three teens made haste for the driveway and out of sight real fast.

Chav stayed, but he was noticably unnerved by the huge dog's appearance. Bobby backed up next to him, and the man reined in the dog and ordered him to sit. To Bobby and Chav, he said "Sorry I didn't get out here sooner, but I was in the shower. When I heard all the commotion, I grabbed Buster real quick and flew downstairs."

Bobby suddenly remembered Tonya and glanced at his watch. He wanted to make sure he was at the house when she arrived, and time was already pressing. "Thanks, brother," he said to the man with the big dog. "I appreciate the help. I really gotta get goin' now. Later, Chav."

"Yo man, how you know my name?" a bewildered Chav asked. As Bobby quickly made for the driveway back to his truck, he replied "Your momma duck told me." Then he abruptly stopped and went back over to Chav. Removing the Bible tract from his shirt pocket, he said with a cheery smile "Here, I think you need this more than I do, homes." Chav looked down at the paper and snickered. And as Bobby was jogging back to his truck, the man with the dog invited Chav in for an early supper. It just so happened that he was planning on ordering Mexican that day, and he was lonely for company. Whoever said the Lord works in mysterious ways wasn't foolin'.

Bobby smiled while pulling back into traffic. "Heh heh, I'm beginning to feel like the Lone Ranger." About ten minutes later, he was home.

He pulled into the lot behind the house and reached over and took the blue Bible from the glove compartment. As he was opening it, he remembered how Tonya was blowing his mind earlier during their long chat. She told him about the Lord, and how much He loves us unconditionally, especially those who believe in Him. But he was also blown away by how she could refer to Scripture so easily, and he'd go to the book and chapter that she mentioned from the Bible and sure enough, it would be there. Not word for word, though. But darn close. She quoted from King James mostly.

He turned on the classical music station as she suggested he do when reading, and went back to the Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 3. He began reading to himself ...

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, “He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’”

John’s clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee God’s coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Jay's cell phone rang as he was pulling into the gas station. A typical Saturday evening, it was packed with guzzling consumers who were on their way to a movie, bowling alley, nightclub, restaurant or casino. And all eyes turned toward him as he barely touched the gas and the Camaro revved and thrust into the lot. Jay just shook his head and smiled while hitting the talk button. "Hello."

It was Mark. "Hey bro, got any plans for the night?" He sounded rather jolly, which always made Jay feel warm inside. There was so much negativity in the world, he kind of felt an obligation to watch out for the guy. Especially when he would most certainly be the best man at Jay's wedding, should it ever take place.

"Actually, yes. My night's full, bro. Why, what's goin' on at your end?" The tan Dodge Intrepid ahead of Jay moved up to the only available pump. Jay let out an impatient sigh. He was ahead of two vehicles behind him. The gas station's mini mart was ahead to his right. This is crazy.

"I'm taking the young'n to Chuck E. Cheese," Mark explained. "Just wondering if you wanna tag along. Unless you're gonna be out with your new honey tonight."

"Wow. Good news travels fast, huh? Hahaha. Lemme guess. You talked to Tonya today." A teal green Grand Am in front of the Intrepid finally pulled away from the pump island, so Jay turned the wheel and swerved around the Dodge.

Unfortunately, he didn't see the girl in the red Acura who was on the other side just waiting, and she wasn't to be denied. By the time he turned the wheel to the left to pull up to the pump, the impatient young lady was already there and shifting her car in park. She looked dead into Jay's eyes with no expression while getting out and walking over to the mart. Jay wisely looked away and grunted to himself as he noticed in his rearview mirror that there were now four vehicles in the line he had just left. Lord, give me strength

Mark replied, "Yeah, she made a point of calling me on my lunch hour and telling me all the wild details of last night. Wish I was there to see little Ray's face when she saw him. Hahahaha! What an airhead that guy is."

Jay pulled behind two vehicles at the island closest to the main street instead of going back to where he was. It was all self-serve, so that wasn't a factor. "Oh, so you've met the runt too, huh?"

"Yeah, but I try not to let people know unless it's unavoidable. Heh heh. So, what's on the agenda over there?"

"Well, Karleen's aunt passed away the night before last and the wake's tonight. She asked if I would go. I kinda thought it was awkward seeing that I never met the aunt, but she said nonsense. Besides, her aunt told Karleen just before passing away that she would meet me. Whaddaya think o' that?"

The Toyota at the pump left and the Jeep Grand Cherokee ahead of Jay moved up in its place.

Mark replied, "Hmmm. Fascinating. Tonya mentioned that. Well, it isn't any more inexplicable than the time you saved that girl from losing her baby. That was pretty freaky."

He was referring to the time Jay got sick from something he ate while watching Mark's son Bradley in a nighttime Christmas play. He went to the nearest bathroom and passed out. Noone knew he was still in the building, so they locked him in the school. He awoke around 11 pm and walked to the auditorium to find it completely empty. Just before closing the door so he could walk to the office and use a phone, he heard what sounded like a loud female cry. He went to investigate and discovered a homeless teen girl lying on a homemade bed behind the stage curtains. She was in labor. He saved the girl and her baby by zooming to the phone and dialing 911 for a rescue, and she wound up naming the healthy newborn baby boy after him.

"Yeah, praise Jesus I was there to do as the 911 operator instructed while the ambulance was on the way. But the best part was when she was reunited with Jaqueline after she saw me and her daughter on the news."

Mark sighed as Jay was pulling up to the pump. "Oh yeah. Jaqueline Hamilton. That girl wanted you so bad in high school and it figures, you save her daughter from possibly losing a baby and dying herself, and she's married now."

Jay hit the PREMIUM button and inserted the nozzle into the gas tank hole. "Yeah well, if she wasn't married and I wound up dating her, I wouldn't have met Karleen yesterday. And it seems as though our Lord wants me with her. According to her aunt, God has special plans for Karleen, which means He must find favor with her. I know one thing, Mark. I wouldn't wanna be the fool who messes with Karleen if God Almighty finds favor with her. Amen?"

The numbers hit 10.00 and Jay returned the hose. "Yo Mark. You still there?" He closed the car tank and looked at the cell phone power meter. There was no problem with the phone, so he wondered what happened to the connection with Mark. As he was handing the cashier a twenty, the cell phone rang. He hit talk. "Yo Mark, what happened? You trip over the cord or... ?"

"Jay! It's Karleen! Are you busy, hon??" She sounded frantic.

The cashier handed Jay a ten and he put it in his pocket while heading back out the door. "No, babe. Actually, I was just on my way over to your place. Why, what's goin' on?" He was walking briskly to the car now.

"Jason, I need you. Don't kill yourself, but please get over here right away! Don't even stop for any yellow lights! Just get here!!" and she hung up.

For the first time since aquiring his license back in 1990, Jason Backus did something he had never done. He drove over the speed limit. And anyone who didn't know him would have thought him to be a professional racer the way he weaved through traffic to get to his new love's apartment. Anyone who did know him would have guessed two things. Either his brake and gas pedals went on him, or there was a definite emergency somewhere! The man just refused to speed.

And he didn't even notice that every traffic light he passed was green, and when he pulled out of the gas station lot, all vehicles stopped to make way for him.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Karleen stepped out of the shower and  grabbed a towel, after which she wrapped her hair in it. Then she took the other towel and dried herself off and walked across the kitchen and into her bedroom.

She then went over to the bureau on the other side of her bed and grabbed the rechargable razor. She sat at the foot of her bed and began touching up her legs with both feet on the mattress.

She inadvertently looked into the mirror which was on the left wall as you walk in (which meant she was looking straight at it from where she was sitting) and caught herself smiling. That only served to broaden her smile even more because she realized that life was suddenly looking up.

She hadn't been this happy since, since... she suddenly went back in her mind, trying to think of the last time she was actually content with her life, and even happy. It took her until she got all the way back to 1990.

His name was Frankie Amaretto, and he was so romantic, every girl he met had taken a liking to him. Some more than others. Some in more ways than others. But he saw Karleen and "Boom!" his heart exploded and he was hooked.

Her friend Sharon called her at home on Saturday night to inquire as to why she wasn't at the club. When Karleen asked why, she explained that Frankie was there and he wouldn't even get up and dance because she wasn't there and he was so gloomed out. She was touched, but also sick with a fever, so she had to stay away that weekend.

However, Frankie sent flowers to her apartment and personally picked her up to take her to the club the following weekend. He went up to the DJ and dedicated "Vision of Love" by Mariah Carey for her, and she swore in her heart that the song would be her wedding song no matter who she married.

Suddenly, she had the urge to hear that tune so she got up, went out to the living room, picked out her Mariah Carey "# 1's" cd and brought it back to her bedroom where she inserted it into the portable stereo system and pushed the Fwd button until it read 16.

As she was heading back to her bed to continue shaving any remaining stubble off her legs, the music started and then Mariah began singing..

"Treated me kind. Sweet destiny
Carried me through desperation, to the one that was waiting for me
It took so long. Still I believed
Somehow the one that I needed Would find me eventually... "

She suddenly thought of Jay. Somehow the one that I needed would find me eventually. Hmmm. Or should i be thinking of Jesus? How about both? She smiled wider and started singing along with Mariah when the phone rang.

She jumped up, still in only her bath towel, turned the music off and hurried out to the living room phone so she could check the caller ID on the answering machine. It read "ID unavailable". Last night when Scott called, she recognized his number. This time, there was no number, but she wasn't taking chances, even though she wanted to talk to her baby so bad.

She waited for the 'beep' and listened, crossing her fingers while doing so. Oh, how sour the taste of disappointment. It was Scott. She listened to his whine and then returned to her bedroom. She quickly replaced the shaver to its charger and then grabbed a black bra from her top bureau drawer. While fastening the straps, the phone rang. She went back to the phone and stood next to it.

Please let this be Jay.

It was Scott again. He sounded more like the Scott of old she remembered from her days of living with him. Mean and vengeful. And he appeared to be gritting his teeth so noone near him could hear what he was saying.

"Fine. Just let it never be said that I didn't give you a chance, blondie." BEEP. He clicked off.

She walked back to her room and said aloud "That's it, this number's getting changed tomorrow. I'm not gonna go through this crap every night."

She quickly grabbed the brush off the bureau and began furiously brushing her hair. She wanted to be out of this apartment as soon as possible. Her eyes boinked open and her jaw dropped as she heard a faint click coming from the living room or near it.

Relax, Karleen. It's the answering machine resetting.

I hope.

She threw down the hairbrush and looked in her top drawer for a pair of undies. She needed black and the only ones there were thongs. So be it. She struggled to put them on because she was now shaking like a leaf as anxiety began to overtake her.

"Get a grip!" she told herself aloud. Yeah, right. Get a grip, my butt. It's too dang quiet in here. Wow, I never realized how quiet it can get in this apartment, even between 6 and 7 pm.

That problem was very quickly solved when a cell phone ring sounded approximately two feet behind where she was standing. She almost jumped right out of her skin!

She let out a deafening shriek and swung around to see her ex boyfriend standing there with a knife raised up in her direction. He was somewhat knocked off rhythm by her scream, but quickly regained his composure and took a step toward Karleen.

Then the change happened!

A lightning-fast reversal of roles took place!

Scott Gentry just froze in his tracks as Karleen calmly and patiently reached over and took the switchblade from his hand. And if he was astonished by that, then he was in for a long night. For as she took the weapon from him, the following words spoke from her lips...

"But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Let him who hath an ear, hear and take heed! "

Scott's eyes and mouth opened so wide with terror that he might have thought himself dead had he not continued seeing Karleen's lips still moving. Without so much as a single blink, she stared straight into his eyes as words she never even remembered hearing spewed forth.

"God Is my refuge and strength! My help in times of trouble!"

Karleen then took a step closer and got right in his face as she continued, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord! Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, heathen! Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

Scott suddenly dropped to his knees with a hard thud! While down there, he turned quickly and clumsily toward the opposite direction. And as he got to his feet and began running to the door, Karleen never moved from her spot, but instead yelled after him, "Submit to God while there is yet time, blind one! Resist the devil and he will flee from you, lest you and all your household perish! There will certainly be weeping and gnashing of teeth!"

And as Scott was flying down her front steps to the sidewalk in horror, Karleen passed out. About twenty minutes later, she awoke and groggily went to the phone to call Jay. He answered on the second ring and mumbled something that she was too nerved up to even understand. She just cut him off.

"Jason, I need you. Don't kill yourself, but please get over here right away! Don't even stop for any yellow lights! Just get here!!" and then she hung up and passed out again.

He was running up her front steps and into the already open front door about fifteen minutes later.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Saturday, September 26, 3:36 pm, Tonya Rae Lake stood alone in the far-righthand corner of the coin-op laundromat she owned, holding a broom. She was scoping the whole place out, and her focus traveled slowly from the "Regarding Stolen or Ruined Clothing" notice on the wall at her right to the soda machine next to her. Then to a line of chairs along the front wall that ended at the entrance door. She looked at all the spiffy, bright-green washers and dryers, There were two 20-inch color TV's that were set at each end of the room.

Every so often she would do this, and thank her dear precious Lord Jesus for providing for her. It wasn't usually on a Saturday though, because this was always the busiest day of the week. However, today was one of those days that defied the laws of standards, and she wasn't complaining one bit. Life was good.

She still had two houses, a decent amount of money in the bank, and this fairly-profitable laundry business. Not to mention her health, her cool cousin Mark, her awesome buddy Jay and his new girlfriend. She seemed nice enough. And of course, the new romance she had with Bobby that just happened out of nowhere.

But most of all she had Jesus In her heart, and she would have forfeited all of the aforementioned people and things for her beloved Lord. In a proverbial heartbeat.

A smile shaped her lips as she resumed sweeping under the clothes-folding table. The bell over the entrance door dinged. She turned around and four teens walked in. Two boys, two girls. The two boys sat down in a seat. One of the girls hopped up on a clothes-folding table, and one of the two boys got up and went over and stood between her legs. She casually put her arms around his neck, and he gave her a short kiss. The other girl remained standing.

They were loud, or so it seemed with the otherwise empty laundromat, and they giggled a lot. A slap here, a cuss word there, goofing on this, goofing on that, the girl sitting on the table snapping her gum, and so forth. Typical teen stuff, although Tonya wasn't thrilled with the idea of them using her building as a hangout. She usually didn't say anything, so long as there were no children within earshot of the cussing.

She kept sweeping and was glad that she had already swept down at their end. Especially when the girl standing suddenly took her jacket off, threw it on the chair beside her boyfriend, and then stepped out of her clogs. She then proceeded to nonchalantly straddle herself up on the boy's lap. He moved his hands around to the small of her back, and Tonya quickly put the broom down and sat in a seat that faced the opposite direction. None of the youths could see her, as they were too caught up in their extracurricular behavior.

The two teens at the table seemed oblivious to what their friends in the seat were doing. The girl with the snapping gum swore at her boyfriend and slapped his jacket. All he did in return was laugh. Tonya suddenly wished Sheree would hurry up and arrive for the night shift. She wanted so bad to see her walk through the front entrance and shoo these juveniles away.

Then her eyes bugged as the jockey girl suddenly said to her horse, "So, what're you thinking?" and he replied with an obvious grin, "I wish my girl would walk in right now so I can see which one of you would win in a catfight." Laughter came from the other two and then there was a slap sound. "Ow! Why you gotta hit me, Tara? You asked, so I told you."

The girl made her way off his lap. "Cause that's all you keep talkin' about, stupid. Ever since me and Amy got to your house, you ain't shut up about her yet."

"Aw, so now you're gonna leave, yo?" he asked while standing up and folding his arms. "Wassup with that?"

Tara put her jacket on. "Seriously Chris, you need to go back to your sweet little princess. She's probably at her house right now studying her head off to be a lawyer." She threw a pointer finger in the air. "Like whatever!"

The other girl said "Awww, Tara. We just got here." Kla-klakka! The sound of Tara turning her clogs over on the floor so she could slip back into them. "Stay if you want. I was just about to say let's go back to my place and you guys coulda had the couch, and me and da playa over there woulda taken my mom's bed. Now I'm just goin' over to the rainbow parade and see if Daryll's there. Later, yo."

Tonya stood up in time to see Tara headed for the door with the other three following. "Daryll? You're gonna diss me for darker meat? That's so whacked." Before opening the exit door, Tara spun around. "I know you don't even want me to tell him you said that so he can smack you down, punk." Her friend Amy pulled her away and said, "C'mon, guys. Let's not go there." After which she turned around and said "Yo Chris, you know two of your best friends are black, so don't even be talkin' stupid like that."

A familiar voice came from a figure who suddenly approached the teens. "Excuse me, peeps. Either talk in or out, but this door's gotta stay closed." Tonya smiled with relief as Sheree finally arrived to take over for her. And the one called Chris walked out with his friends, but not before turning back to Sheree and saying, "Hey, you're cute" as the door was shutting. She just shook her head without looking back. The last thing Tonya heard was Tara saying "Oh snap, look who's goin' for darker meat now?" and the four of them took to laughing while heading toward the gay pride parade down the street.

Sheree saw Tonya and said, "Ay, hon. Sorry I'm late. I had to detour like ten blocks just to get here with that crazy parade goin' on. Man, what a bunch o' looneys. Did you see it?" She removed her coat and hung it on the rack behind the counter. "I swear, there must've been a hundred fools prancin' around in pink and purple leotards!" Tonya quickly bent over and swept the dirt into the dustpan before replying. "No, I didn't, but I could hear some of the music. Did you see any of your friends there?"

Sheree shot Tonya an Excuse me?? stare, and Tonya ran over and hugged her with a loud giggle. "I'm sorry, Sheree. I couldn't resist. I'm just so happy you finally got here. I was beginning to think those teenagers were gonna take off their clothes and, and... "

"And what, Tonya? What happened?" Sheree asked. "I know one of those boys' mom and he'll be grounded if I rat on him. So, what happened?" Tonya was rapidly figuring her shift's total wash/dry sale and writing it down. "Tell you tomorrow, hon. Right now, I'm gonna jet over to my place and call my new boyfriend. I miss him so much." She grabbed her coat from behind the counter and made her way to the exit. "Bye, Sheree. Have a great night." And she was on the way to her car.

About ten minutes later, she was still sitting at the intersection five blocks from the laundramat where the parade was going past. A policeman was there directing the vehicles around some orange cones to the detour. He didn't look happy. Poor guy. It was rather cold out for a September late afternoon, and a fierce wind was blowing.

Tonya was surprised at two things. First, she was surprised that the parade was still going at this time of the day, although she had heard that it didn't begin until about one. And secondly, she could not believe how scantily clad some of the participants of the event were dressed.

"Goodness, those, those, those people are gonna catch colds!" she said to noone within hearing range.

A whistle blew near her car and she looked over to see the cop motioning her with his impatient waving gloved hand. "Come on, ma'am. Let's move it along", he beckoned. She smiled apologetically and drove on.

Approximately twenty minutes later she pulled into her lot and it was close to dark now, so she wasn't sure if the suv next to her parking space was Bobby's or not. Then as she drove behind to go by, she recognized the big sticker on the rear window, "If That Phone Was Up Your Butt, Maybe You Could Drive A Little Better", and she knew it was her man's truck.

He got out as she was turning off the car and he made it over to the door in time to open it for her. "Hey, hot legs, this is for you", Bobby said as he handed her the roses with a bright smile. She was glad it was dark now so he couldn't see her tear up over this wonderful gesture of affection, but it didn't matter because her sniffle gave it away that she was quite moved.

She suddenly threw her arms around his big shoulders and thanked him through sobs. Of course, he just laughed and told her it was no big deal 'cause she was worth a million roses, but he had to watch his budget now, so a dozen would have to do. She giggled as always and thanked him again. They kissed a nice hello kiss and began rambling to one another about how each other's day went on the way up to her apartment.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Saturday, September 26th, 8:15 PM. Jay and Karleen were standing outside the funeral home. She was talking with Donna while he stood at her rear left with his right hand on her shoulder. She felt it and welcomed it tremendously, even while speaking to her cousin. A great number of people had shown up to pay their respects and see Dolores one last time. Then by 8:30, most everyone had been and gone. Karleen and Donna were hugging good night and then Jay went and unlocked the car.

Karleen went up to him after Donna went to her own car and she wrapped her arms around him hard. He reciprocated and they stayed in that state for a good two minutes before he asked if she were okay. She was crying. He put his hand in her hair and kissed her on top. "That's it. Let it out, baby. Shhhhhhh."

Karleen threw her head back and began laughing hard. Obviously, this surprised Jay. "Sorry, I missed the joke", he said curiously. She stopped laughing but kept smiling and shaking her head as if to say you just don't get it.

"Honey, I'm sorry", she said while getting into the driver's side of the car, still smiling. He went around and got in. They fastened their belts and she started it up. He reached his left hand over and rubbed the nape of her neck.

"So, what's so funny that you can laugh after seeing your dear departed aunt in a casket?" He wasn't being cynical, he was merely curious as to why she suddenly threw her head back and took to laughing right after crying. Was she going into hysterics after what had happened back at her apartment? "Hmmm?"

She gently scratched his fingers with her long nails and smiled at him again. "Honey, I wasn't crying because of my aunt's death. She is certain that The LORD Has Called her home and after tonight, I am beginning to believe her. I just got an overwhelming feeling of happiness seeing you unlocking the car like a true gentleman and I had an incredible urge to hug you. And then I realized how fortunate I am to have met you and I started crying with glee.

"And when you ever told me to just let it out, it's gonna be okay, I couldn't help but laugh my head off because you had no idea why I was weeping. I'm sorry, darling. Hope you're not mad."

He smiled back. "Mad? Nah. How could I be mad after all those compliments?" She giggled and replied "True."

Jason kissed her hand a couple times more and said, "Now, come on. Let's go back to my place so I can fill you in on what Tonya was talking about last night in the restaurant. And I wanna hear more about the incident at your apartment earlier. Unless you don't wanna... "

"Jay, I really don't. I'm sorry."

He leaned over and kissed her lips. "It's quite all right, Karleen. I can see why you would definitely wanna dwell on another subject for a day or so." He kissed her lightly again, smiled and moved back to his sitting position as she hit drive and drove to the edge of the lot. Then she looked over and gave him an odd look. "What's the matter?" he inquired.

She put the shift in P and turned her body toward him a little. "Jay", she began, "are we gonna sleep together tonight? I mean, I have no problem with it if you don't. I just wanna know if there's a chance. Because if you have an issue because of your religion... " She stopped short when he frowned and shook his head and looked out his window. "Jay, what is it? Am I outta line, hon? We're adults. I have a right to wonder."

He sighed and looked back to her. "First of all, I understand your question and concern. And you're right, we're both adults so it's good to talk about this before someone is embarassed or hurt."

"Exactly", she replied.

"It's just when you mention the possibility that I may take issue with this because of my religion, it's a bit unnerving. I mean, in light of what happened to you tonight, plus how you and I met after your aunt told you we would, I would think that it would be more of us trying to do as God Would Have us do rather than what I should do regarding my religion, as you put it."

She nodded. "I see your point, yes. And I apologize. I didn't mean to make God out to be an old bag of rules, honey." She looked out her left window as a set of flashing red and blue lights suddenly flared and a couple of cruisers sped off to some adventure. "You're right. But in any case, all I am saying is, I am in no rush to return to that apartment, and I will be more than happy to sleep on your sofa tonight. That's all I was saying, doll. Honest."

A tear began to form in his eye. "Now it's my turn to cry, Karleen." She started crying too and they both took to embracing once more. And this time, it lasted more than two minutes.

Jason thought Thank You, wonderful LORD Jesus for Blessing me with this beautiful woman. Thank You so very much!

Karleen thought Oh, what have I done to deserve this wonderful man? All my cussing and fighting and promiscuousness. You should have deserted me and left me to a cruel fate, Jesus! Goodness, Your Mercy is beyond measure! Thank You, Father God!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It's very possible and even probable that the Sunday morning on which Dolores Ann Castigliego was to be laid to rest in Resounding Grace cemetary was the most perfect of any Autumn day thus far since The Good LORD Created the Planet Earth.

As a seemingly endless line of slow-moving vehicles made their way single file onto the cemetary grounds via the narrow, newly-paved road, there were only a few puffy clouds to be seen above the foliaged trees, the sun was shining quite radiantly, the sky was a bright beautiful blue, the temperature was a nice, crisp 55 degrees and the birds seemed to chirp with delight as they frolicked about, their eyes darting from each other to the vehicles, back to each other, back to the people.

In the limousine which followed the line-leading hearse, Karleen sat to the left of Jay, her right hand on his left knee, his hand on top of hers. Facing them were Donna and her husband Gary. Not a word was spoken during the whole ride by either of them, and the only sounds were an occasional sniffle from Donna and a soft "Shhhhhhh" from her hubby.

This was actually Karleen's first funeral procession. And she prayed it would be the last before her own.

Upon stepping out of the long Mercedes limo, Karleen looked back at the road by which they entered and was astounded at the number of vehicles behind her. "Mercy, are they all here for us?" she asked Jay in a low tone. There was a light tap on her shoulder as Donna replied, "No dear. They're here for my mother, your aunt. sniffle

"I don't mean to sound resentful, so please do not misconstrue, Karleen. However, it's no secret that you have only been around for a short time. It is therefore understandable for you to be surprised at the high turnout this morning. But you may as well know, my momma was a well respected citizen of the whole city of Springfield and... "

"And she still is and always shall be." Donna looked over to see Robert Kerrigan, Springfield's mayor. She smiled and held out her hand, knowing that the charming gentleman would surely kiss it. She was not disappointed. "Hello, Mayor Kerrigan. Thank you for appearing last night at the visitation, sir. I was... " He waved his hand. "Oh, please. Dolores was not only a key supporter in my re-election campaign, which is a main reason I was voted back in, but also a dear friend, a wonderful person, and a pretty fine cook, if I dare say." The five of them laughed, along with Mrs. Kerrigan and a few bystanders.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Donna looked to her cousin. "Karleen, this is our wonderful mayor, Robert Kerrigan. And his precious wife Maureen. They shook hands, Jay was introduced, although the mayor already knew him as the brave man who saved the two children from that burning house a few years back. Then they all conversed for a few moments. Karleen was flabbergasted and a bit flushed when the mayor and his wife told her how they can't remember a single time that they spoke with Dolores where she didn't make at least one mention of her favorite niece.

She looked at the mayor and the incredible funeral procession and had to marvel at the astonishing fact that such a well-loved and respected person could love her so much. As everyone was almost in their respective places and positions, she whispered to Jay, "I'm surprised you never heard of her."

"Actually, I have. But only through friends and the Church. I usually keep to myself." He sidestepped closer to her and she put her arm around his.

There was a minute or so which passed without a single murmer, wimper, sigh, cough, sneeze or sniffle. Only the light wind and some beautiful chirps from a small choir of birds in a nearby tree, and an overwhelming sensation of euphoric bliss suddenly swept over Karleen's very soul. She slipped into a trance and noone noticed.

Her spirit was saying Oh myyyyyy. Oh wowwwww. Ooooooohhh. Oh myyyyyyyyyy. Yet her mouth and body never twitched as the pastor of Dolores's Church took his place near the casket which was virtually covered with bright, beautiful, multi-colored flowers.

Then there was The Light.

It may as well have been 11 PM instead of 11 AM, for The Light which abruptly appeared from above and Shone down upon Karleen's awestruck spirit was brighter than the sun itself!

And yet, she could not look away from it, and even stared straight up into its Source, though all she could see was a radiant, pulsating shape which appeared to be about a half mile high in the sky. And the sensation of everlasting nirvana was not to be ignored, nor would anyone with the slightest hint of goodness in their soul wish to ignore It, ever!

And then His soft, yet firm Words sounded from The Light.

"Child, hear My Words.

Heed them.

You are but one of only a few to whom I have Shown Myself in many years past.

The time of My Return draws nigh, as was Promised by My Father to your ancestors by way of His many Prophets.

I have Chosen whom I will to gather the elect before I Remove my Bride from the coming world trials.

You child are one of those whom I have Chosen.

Henceforth, you shall be watched over and cared for industriously by certain Angels that you shan't see, although they will be amongst you day and night.

I have Gathered four together throughout the world, as I have also Gathered Jason, Robert, Tonya and you here in this corner.

My Father's Will shall be done, though much destruction surely must come upon the earth aforehand.

It shall take place for a short period, and it shan't be long before the Father of evil takes his place and reigns for a time.

Many dwellers will die.

This also shall take place for a short period, and it shan't be long before the Father of evil takes his place and reigns for a time.

Then shall I Return and Remove My Bride, as It is Written.

After I Call My Bride up hither to be with Me, those left behind shall indeed purchase their cold fate with fool's gold!

They have been both warned and advised time and again to purchase My Gold which has been Purified by Holy Fire.

Their punishment shall surely fit the transgression.

So Says the Holy LORD.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Child, be not afraid to hike along the Path which I have Personally Chosen for you.

Let not your pride claim trump over the Wisdom which shall surely Replenish your soul.

On the day you beckon me to enter into your heart, you will gain life eternal and all sorrow and despair shall be Extinguished.

Any and all of your past transgressions shall be swept into a bottomless void, never to be thought of again.

Be not doubtful of My Promises, child, for I have no need to lie.

Nor should you doubt the coming chastisement which shall soon curse man's unbelieving hearts.

Remain at your husband's side as he wisely follows that course which I have Laid out for him.

I have Spoken!

Now you must discern.

Call unto me and I shall Answer promptly.

I Choose whom I will to serve Me, child.

So It is Written, and so It is.

Now, I Tell you a secret that noone knows, Nor shall they know.

What I Tell you here and now will never leave your soul, yet it shall remain hidden for your remaining time.

It shall be locked away within the deepest rooms of your heart and shall only be released by My Holy Spirit on the day you Invite me in."


When the private Meeting had ended, Karleen returned to her normal state of mortality, just in time to observe as her cousin Donna approached the cordless mic and stand to read the eulogy she had written for her dear departed mother.

It was an incredibly moving speech. Roughly half of the people listening were already weeping by the time she read half of it, and naturally, she herself had a rough time. Finally, Karleen went over to her side and gently took the written memorial from Donna's trembling hand.

She looked out at the crowd and caught a glimpse of a tall, balding man attempting in vain to inconspicuously remain out of view behind a slim teenage girl. She recognized the loser right off, but just shook her head in pity and vowed to say a prayer for him before bed that night.

She then adjusted the mic stand a few inches higher. After introducing herself as the deceased's niece, she found the place where her cousin left off and read the final two paragraphs.

" Ahem. Yes, my momma and your good friend -Dolores Castigliego- had her faults, as do we all. And though a few were quick to point those faults out to her and to each other about her, she always kept any and all negative opinions of relatives and aquaintances to herself. God Bless her for that alone. Many of us would do well to follow her ideals, which she always attributed to The Bible and The Holy Spirit within her heart..

"And so ends the life of a most beloved member of our fine community. However, most of us know that my momma's life may have ended here, but it is only now beginning up in Heaven where she will gladly live out the rest of eternity serving our Awesome, Holy LORD Jesus, and we can take great comfort in knowing that the smile which once brightened our gloomy, dismal days here on Earth is now wider and brighter than ever before up in Heaven with Him! Amen!

"I'll see you soon, Mom! Tell Daddy hi! I love you!

Your loving daughter, Donna"

Karleen had always perceived herself as being strong, she always thought she was tough. There never really seemed to be much that could sway her emotions to the point of tears or even gloomy moods.

And yet, after reading those final two paragraphs written by a cousin she hadn't really known well, and for a woman whom she hadn't seen since age 16 before returning to Springfield less than a year ago, there were still times here and there where she caught herself wiping away a tear by midday.

However, by the late afternoon, her own tears were forgotten.

Now it was time to focus on the tears of others, as The LORD Laid On her heart that she should do.

And focus, she did.

Sunday night, Karleen attended Church as a potential member for the first time since age 14. Bobby and Tonya were there as well. She told Jay to let it be known that she wished to be baptized in water as soon as possible. He was overwhelmed with excitement, and Bobby shrugged and said, "Hey, I'm right behind ya, Sister!" and threw her his infamous know what uh mean? wink. She went over and gave him a big hug after that.

Tonya buried her face in her own sweater and burst into tears of joy.

Karleen made good use of Jay's Bible Prophecy meeting room, and she even bought a huge monitor for his pc. Not to mention, a 46-in. TV with dvd player and powerful satellite dish so the four of them could order and watch all the latest Bible Prophecy videos and keep up with the goings-on with the coming world government, the global religion, the earthquakes, the freak storms, the wars and rumors of wars, the persecuted Christians worldwide, and so on and so forth.

And not even a week later, the four of them agreed on a double wedding which would be behind closed doors, save for the Church and a select few relatives.

Oh, and for the record, Tonya finally got Bobby to trade in his jacked up, loud exhaust Ford F-150 for a teal blue Explorer, and he even replaced the old bumber sticker with a new one...

"Our Heavenly Father Is Like Hallmark Cards: He Cared Enough To Send The Very Best!"


Praise Jesus Christ in Heaven forever & for always!

Amen!