But Now I See - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Keith Bradburry had everything going for him. He was twenty-eight, had a college education, a promising career in the computer field, a wife and two kids. In his mind he was headed for the American dream - financial security as an independent computer consultant. But then everything changed when he became mixed up with the wrong people.

* * *

Franklin, Indiana – population 12,907. At least that’s what the sign says when you enter the city limits. It’s a comfortable little town thirty minutes south of Indianapolis. The neighborhoods are quiet, the streets are clean, no one locks their doors at night – it’s the perfect place to raise a family… or so it seemed to Keith and Debra Bradbury in June of 1997.
The Bradbury family moved from Indianapolis that June to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life seeking more tranquil surroundings. The three-bedroom townhouse that they rented was in a very quiet complex surrounded by huge maple trees. On a typical afternoon you could hear the rustling of leaves in the wind and the sweet songs of a variety of birds, which was a wonderful diversion from the sounds of car horns and trains that they constantly heard in the city. Across the street was the elementary school where Ron and Ellen would attend in the Fall. There was one grocery store, four gas stations, two bars and six churches – that was it. One of the six churches was a little full gospel church on West Monroe St. One of Debra’s friends, Pam Scribner and her husband Gary, had been attending the church for about a month and invited the Bradburys’ to a service the following Sunday.
It was a small congregation of about twenty people, quite cozy and personable. The pastor, Pastor Bryan Francis, was a typical southern preacher with an accent to match. His fiery sermons were delivered with a touch of “hell-fire and brimstone”, from his Freewill Baptist upbringing no doubt, but there was also a great deal of love and gentleness that shown through those wrinkled brown eyes of his. There was a small musical ensemble consisting of a keyboard, guitar and drums that played Southern Gospel and old hymns. Stuart Harper, the guitar player, lead in the singing. That first visit developed into a month of Sundays and the Bradburys’ became members of that little church at 1291 West Monroe St. called River of Joy.

* * *

Stuart and Wanda Harper had been attending the church for about five months. Because of Stuart’s ability to sing and play the guitar, he was given the position of Worship Leader of the small congregation. Wanda, who had attended a recent seminar on spiritual warfare, was given the opportunity to teach a class on the subject in the Sunday evening services. One of the assignments of this spiritual warfare class was to subject yourself to a “spiritual deep cleansing” event which Wanda took everyone through in a one-on-one setting. Man, woman, boy or girl didn’t matter – Wanda took everyone through by herself, one-on-one. They were all new Christians and were so excited about their newly found faith that this activity didn’t alarm them. This one-on-one session with Wanda seemed like a diversion from the norm, but then so did everything else that had to do with the Christian faith so no one really analyzed or questioned what was going on. The session took anywhere from two to four hours and everyone got to pick which day they wanted to go through the session. Keith chose a Friday. The sessions took place at Stuart and Wanda’s apartment, so Keith showed up at their doorstep on the designated day. Wanda greeted Keith at the door and as he walked in Stuart headed for the back bedroom while Wanda and he stayed in the living room. “Would you like a glass of lemonade before we get started”, Wanda asked as she made her way toward the kitchen. “Sure”, Keith replied as he took off his shoes and set them on the welcome mat just inside the door. No shoes on the carpet; that was the rule. It was a small two-bedroom apartment with tan carpeting and white textured walls. Several pictures of their six adult children and four grandchildren cluttered the walls of the living room and adjoining dining room. The air smelled of cleaning chemicals and burning candles. Wanda returned to the living room with a very large glass of lemonade and set it on the end table next to the couch. Keith nervously lifted the sweaty glass to his parched lips and took a big slug, downing almost half the glass before returning it to the coaster. He sat down and sank into the deep couch as Wanda handed him a legal pad of paper and a pen. She announced that, “you need to make a few lists; one of people that have sinned against you, one of people that you have sinned against and a list of sins that you have committed as far back as you can remember. Let me know when you’ve finished the lists”, she said as she sat in a recliner across the room thumbing through a notebook of her own.
After taking another swig of his lemonade Keith got to work on the lists. Let’s see, he thought. Who has sinned against me.
He thought back to when his father had left his mother for another woman and how much pain that decision had caused. Mom couldn’t eat for days; She cried constantly for months; After their twenty-five year marriage had ended so abruptly, she believed that her life was over. First person on the list… Dad.
Of course Mom was against my marriage to Debra and wore black to the wedding in protest; How embarrassing that was! Mom gets second on the list.
A few years earlier, Keith was working as a tennis court resurfacer and struggling to support his family of four on the income. In addition to attending night classes to earn a degree in Computer Science he had worked part time on the weekends as a courier for a medical laboratory. When his boss found out that he was working for another company on the weekends he fired Keith for moonlighting. Third on the list… his old boss Robert Larken.
It took twenty minutes to compose a list of nine people but the struggle of bringing to mind the same memories that he had tried so hard to forget caused it to feel like twenty hours. The sweat streaming from his forehead and the constant shifting of body weight in the couch was an obvious indication that he was uncomfortable with this little exercise. Reaching for the glass and raising it to his lips, the last remaining ice cube slid into his mouth.
Wanda, paying more attention to Keith fidgeting than to whatever she was reading in her notebook asked, “would you like more to drink?”
“Yes please,” Keith said trying to look relaxed but failing miserably. Wanda smiled at him, took the glass and headed for the kitchen. I don’t understand how this is going to help me, he thought to himself. But Wanda says that this is necessary, for what I don’t understand but if she says that I need to do this then I’m gonna do it. And with that, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, took a deep breath and began constructing the second list.
Who have I sinned against?
Keith was deep in thought when Wanda returned with the lemonade. Not realizing she was there he jumped when she handed him the glass with a, “here ya go!” She laughed and told him to, “relax, this seems hard right now but you will feel like a load has been lifted off your shoulders when you leave here today. Relax.”
As hard as he tried, he could not relax. Something just didn’t seem right about this appointment. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he felt it – something wasn’t right here. Wanda seemed very interested in gathering extremely personal information - not just on a counselor-to-counselee level but in a nosy kind of way. It wasn’t only the way she was talking to him or the questions she was asking. It was much deeper than that. She had a smile on her face but an eerie, evil look in her eyes. He had seen that same look once before, in his rebellious teenage years, when he met a man professing to be a warlock. He would never forget the man’s hollow blank stare. Wanda had the same look and stare. Keith had the strange feeling that she was going to use the information for something other than helping him to be spiritually clean. He kept trying to rid his mind of the negative thoughts about Wanda but the harder he tried the stronger the feelings became. He finally convinced himself that it was his own pride that was causing the feelings. Wanda has no personal agenda here, he told himself. She’s trying to help me to be free from my past and live a righteous life for God. I’m just a prideful fool and I’m allowing my pride to get in the way of what I need to… what I have to do. When Keith had finished his internal pep talk he took the pen in hand and quickly, yet thoughtfully, completed the remaining two lists. He handed the completed lists to Wanda and returned to the couch feeling like he hadn’t slept in days. The internal battle, at least he thought it was internal, had left him exhausted.
Wanda looked over the lists, writing in her notebook as she went. She studied the pages intently for several minutes never looking up or speaking – just writing. Wanda was in her early fifties. She was five feet six inches tall, thick build, about 260 pounds with snow white hair. She was sitting on the edge of her chair with one foot on the floor and the other crossed over her knee. The material of her tan polyester slacks was pulled taut and the hem was up to her calf on the leg that was extended. The matching thigh length blouse had half-dollar size gold buttons down the front and a starburst design made of sequins on the lapel. The light blue upholstery on the recliner was worn but clean. Wanda finally raised her head with a stern look on her slightly wrinkled face, took a deep breath and spoke in Keith’s direction.
Keith had dozed off on the couch and was jerked awake when Wanda spoke. “I have some questions that I need to ask you. They’re not hard questions but they are very personal. You need to answer them seriously and honestly or you will be wasting both our time. You can be confidant that anything we discuss here in this room will never leave this room, so you need to really open up. Are you ready?”
“I suppose so,” he said reluctantly as he sat up straight and refocused his eyes.
“Keith, have you ever read horoscopes?”
“Yes occasionally.”
“Well Keith, you are involving yourself in witchcraft when you read horoscopes. It’s a sin that must be renounced.” She got up out of the chair and handed the lists back to Keith. “You need to add ‘reading horoscopes’ to your list of sins. I’m going to continue asking you several questions like that one and I want you to add anything that you’ve been involved with to the list. Your list could get quite a bit longer, but don’t get discouraged. Each sin must be renounced individually which will take some time, but the more you renounce the freer you become!” She sat back down in her chair and asked the next question.
“Have you ever read fortune cookies?”
“Yes, what’s wrong with that?”
“They are the same as horoscopes, they’re witchcraft. Add it to your list. Have you ever played with a magic eight ball?”
Keith thought for a moment, and responded with, “I don’t think I have.”
“Good,” replied Wanda, and she went to the next question.
“Have you ever played with a ouija board?”
“Yes. A long time ago when I was a kid I used to sleep over at a friend’s house who had one. We used to get it out once in a while. Nothing spooky ever happened, we would force the pointer to spell things to scare his little sister. That was all.”
“It doesn’t matter if anything happened or not, you still need to add it to the list.”
The questions went on and on for several minutes. By the time Wanda was finished asking questions Keith’s list of sins were in the forties. They ranged from harsh thoughts to lust and sexual sins and everything in between. Wanda took a strong interest in the sexual sins, probing for detailed information – who, what, when, where, how many, how old and how often. It all went into her notebook as Keith answered each question. When Wanda ran out of questions she stood up and told Keith, “Now that you have your lists completed you need to prayerfully and honestly forgive those people on your first list that have sinned against you. Then, take your second list and seek God in prayer for forgiveness for the sins that you committed against others – name each person and the offense individually. When you are finished with that, take the third list and ask God’s forgiveness for each sin individually. This will take you a while so I’m going to the bedroom to give you time alone with God. Just come knock on the door when you are finished. Ok?”
“Ok. Can I get some more lemonade before I get started?”
“Help yourself, top shelf in the fridge, ice is on the door.”
Wanda turned and walked down the hallway to the last door on the left, and quietly closed the door behind her.
Keith sat on the couch for a moment rubbing his temples with the ball of his palms trying to convince himself that he needed to continue this spiritual cleansing exercise. His head hurt, his shirt was soaked with sweat, his face felt prickly and hot – he was exhausted. If I just quietly leave now she won’t know for a while and I can go home and get into bed, he reasoned. But when she finds out I’ve left she’ll call or come over and cause a scene. Then everyone at church will hear that I didn’t go through with it. I’ll be mocked. No one will think I’m serious with God… or even saved at all! “I’ve gotta do this!” he said aloud to himself – then picked up the glass, stood up and headed toward the kitchen with a slight stagger in his step.