The next morning was wild and crazy as people came and went all morning bringing us things at the church and asking us what we needed. People also took us back and forth to the Sunset and helped us go through the rubble. Mom found a box that had three pictures of me as a baby that were not wet or torn up at all. Unbelievably, everything else in that drawer was sopping wet from the rains. Mom said it was a ‘miracle’.
At about noon, mom decided there was not anything else we could salvage and she told me to go sit in the lobby. As I stepped over a 2 x 12 beam that still lay in front of where our front door used to be, I looked up and saw Willard pull up in his fancy ‘Delta 88’. He got out and looked around, shaking his head.
“What a tragedy. What a shame. I’m glad no one was hurt,” Willard said to a crowd of about six people. I heard tires scrunch on the gravel of the parking lot and looked around. It was Ron and Harold. Both got out and greeted Willard with a handshake. Then Ron came over and hugged me tight without saying anything. Mom walked up and Ron turned to her.
“Mrs.Simpson,” Ron said. “If you will gather everyone who is here, I want to let them know that there is a feast big enough to choke a dozen horses over at Riverstone. Tonight, we will feed everyone over at the Methodist Church.”
“Thank you, sir. That is very kind of you. I will let everyone know,” mom said as she walked off to the ruins. I looked over as Willard reached and grabbed Ron by the elbow and pulled him to the side and whispered to him. After a second, Ron stepped back with a surprised look on his face.
“No sir, Mr. James. The hospitality committee did not have a chance to call a meeting and vote on feeding these homeless people. As pastors and overseers, Harold and I decided to do what we thought had to be done in a time of tragedy.”
“Tragedy? No one was killed or even hurt. A cheap old motel got blown over. That’s all.”
“Mr. James. Twenty people were made homeless yesterday, and it’s the church’s responsibility to help out. Luckily, four of the twenty have called relatives in other counties and have plans to move in with them. The rest though, are in hard times. Christ didn’t call a committee vote to feed five thousand people, he just did it.”
“Well…I guess one meal can’t hurt,” Willard said and then looked around. “It will take weeks for this place to be rebuilt. Where are they all going to stay until it is rebuilt?”
“The owner had no insurance, Mr. James.,” added Harold. It won’t be rebuilt.
“For awhile, they will stay at Riverstone and Pastor Wiggins’s church, just as they did last night,” Ron said. Willard’s face turned a bright red in a matter of seconds. I thought he was going to explode. When he opened his mouth, it did. I won’t tell you the curse word he said next.
“These…people stayed overnight in ‘My’ church? Who in God’s name let them do that?!”
“I guess that would be me, Willard. And God. He commands us to help the hurting,” Ron said.
“I will not have these ‘dope-smoking’ drunks messing up our fine facility and eating up our budget!”
Jake stepped forward and tried to lighten up the mood. “Mr. James, I have not smoked dope in over twenty years, but if the urge comes over me in the next few days, I promise I will go out back to smoke.” The whole crowd laughed hard and I thought Willard was going to hit Jake. He was so mad. Even Ron snickered at what Jake said.
“I will not put up with you, you heathen hypocrite. I demand you apologize for that disrespectful comment,” announced Willard.
“I apologize, Mr. James. I promise I will not smoke dope at all while I live at ‘your’ church.” It was more than Willard could put up with. He stormed off and got in his car and sprayed the whole crowd with gravel. Nobody really cared. They were still laughing.
Soon after, everyone headed over to Riverstone Baptist to eat lunch. It was a ‘horse choking feast’. The food was great and I think all of us Sunset people were very appreciative. Luckily, Willard James didn’t show up till after we were finished eating. Ron, however, wasn’t there when he and ‘Old Man Jackson’ came storming in. He had gotten a call from Mrs. Anderson and he left.
Several people jumped when the two came storming into the fellowship hall. ‘Old Man Jackson’ must have come straight from the farm, because he smelled like a warm wet barnyard. It was pretty bad, and everybody seemed to notice.
“Where in tarnation is our soon to be ‘ex-pastor’?” demanded Willard.
“He went home to join his wife, sir. I’m sure he’ll be back shortly,” mom informed him.
“Well, I hope you all know that you are participating in an unofficial and possibly illegal gathering. Separate committees and sometimes the church as a whole votes on everything that goes on in this building. Especially when it involves having to pay the custodian extra money to clean up a mess.”
The lady who used to live in room #7 spoke up. She is always sort of a loudmouth. “Don’t worry about the mess and the smell, sir. When you and your friend leave, we don’t mind cleaning up the cow manure he is leaving behind. You won’t have to spend a dime on your janitor.” Nearly everyone laughed out loud. Once again, Willard turned red and looked like he was going to blow a gasket.
“You people do not belong here. This is ‘our’ church and we will not have a bunch of strangers coming in here and messing up things. And if you think this new pastor is in charge here, you are wrong. In about eight hours, he will be jobless and homeless himself. Get used to it, and start looking for another place to live.”
Jake stood up. “Sir?”
“Yes?” Willard answered.
At about noon, mom decided there was not anything else we could salvage and she told me to go sit in the lobby. As I stepped over a 2 x 12 beam that still lay in front of where our front door used to be, I looked up and saw Willard pull up in his fancy ‘Delta 88’. He got out and looked around, shaking his head.
“What a tragedy. What a shame. I’m glad no one was hurt,” Willard said to a crowd of about six people. I heard tires scrunch on the gravel of the parking lot and looked around. It was Ron and Harold. Both got out and greeted Willard with a handshake. Then Ron came over and hugged me tight without saying anything. Mom walked up and Ron turned to her.
“Mrs.Simpson,” Ron said. “If you will gather everyone who is here, I want to let them know that there is a feast big enough to choke a dozen horses over at Riverstone. Tonight, we will feed everyone over at the Methodist Church.”
“Thank you, sir. That is very kind of you. I will let everyone know,” mom said as she walked off to the ruins. I looked over as Willard reached and grabbed Ron by the elbow and pulled him to the side and whispered to him. After a second, Ron stepped back with a surprised look on his face.
“No sir, Mr. James. The hospitality committee did not have a chance to call a meeting and vote on feeding these homeless people. As pastors and overseers, Harold and I decided to do what we thought had to be done in a time of tragedy.”
“Tragedy? No one was killed or even hurt. A cheap old motel got blown over. That’s all.”
“Mr. James. Twenty people were made homeless yesterday, and it’s the church’s responsibility to help out. Luckily, four of the twenty have called relatives in other counties and have plans to move in with them. The rest though, are in hard times. Christ didn’t call a committee vote to feed five thousand people, he just did it.”
“Well…I guess one meal can’t hurt,” Willard said and then looked around. “It will take weeks for this place to be rebuilt. Where are they all going to stay until it is rebuilt?”
“The owner had no insurance, Mr. James.,” added Harold. It won’t be rebuilt.
“For awhile, they will stay at Riverstone and Pastor Wiggins’s church, just as they did last night,” Ron said. Willard’s face turned a bright red in a matter of seconds. I thought he was going to explode. When he opened his mouth, it did. I won’t tell you the curse word he said next.
“These…people stayed overnight in ‘My’ church? Who in God’s name let them do that?!”
“I guess that would be me, Willard. And God. He commands us to help the hurting,” Ron said.
“I will not have these ‘dope-smoking’ drunks messing up our fine facility and eating up our budget!”
Jake stepped forward and tried to lighten up the mood. “Mr. James, I have not smoked dope in over twenty years, but if the urge comes over me in the next few days, I promise I will go out back to smoke.” The whole crowd laughed hard and I thought Willard was going to hit Jake. He was so mad. Even Ron snickered at what Jake said.
“I will not put up with you, you heathen hypocrite. I demand you apologize for that disrespectful comment,” announced Willard.
“I apologize, Mr. James. I promise I will not smoke dope at all while I live at ‘your’ church.” It was more than Willard could put up with. He stormed off and got in his car and sprayed the whole crowd with gravel. Nobody really cared. They were still laughing.
Soon after, everyone headed over to Riverstone Baptist to eat lunch. It was a ‘horse choking feast’. The food was great and I think all of us Sunset people were very appreciative. Luckily, Willard James didn’t show up till after we were finished eating. Ron, however, wasn’t there when he and ‘Old Man Jackson’ came storming in. He had gotten a call from Mrs. Anderson and he left.
Several people jumped when the two came storming into the fellowship hall. ‘Old Man Jackson’ must have come straight from the farm, because he smelled like a warm wet barnyard. It was pretty bad, and everybody seemed to notice.
“Where in tarnation is our soon to be ‘ex-pastor’?” demanded Willard.
“He went home to join his wife, sir. I’m sure he’ll be back shortly,” mom informed him.
“Well, I hope you all know that you are participating in an unofficial and possibly illegal gathering. Separate committees and sometimes the church as a whole votes on everything that goes on in this building. Especially when it involves having to pay the custodian extra money to clean up a mess.”
The lady who used to live in room #7 spoke up. She is always sort of a loudmouth. “Don’t worry about the mess and the smell, sir. When you and your friend leave, we don’t mind cleaning up the cow manure he is leaving behind. You won’t have to spend a dime on your janitor.” Nearly everyone laughed out loud. Once again, Willard turned red and looked like he was going to blow a gasket.
“You people do not belong here. This is ‘our’ church and we will not have a bunch of strangers coming in here and messing up things. And if you think this new pastor is in charge here, you are wrong. In about eight hours, he will be jobless and homeless himself. Get used to it, and start looking for another place to live.”
Jake stood up. “Sir?”
“Yes?” Willard answered.
“I don’t think there is going to be a meeting tonight, considering the circumstances.”
“The only circumstance you need to know about sir, is that a special called business meeting has been called tonight, and a tornado is not going to change that.”
Jake continued. “I’m sorry no one informed you yet, sir, but early this morning about twenty of your loyal church members came by to serve us breakfast and to tell us how sorry they were about the storm and most of them agreed that tonight would not be the best time to meet. ‘Called meeting’ or not, Mr. James. I don’t think anybody else is going to show up tonight. And…” Jake paused, “…the man you are trying to run out of town had nothing to do with it. He even suggested that we…you, continue with your meeting. It was everyone else that insisted on not showing up.”
Willard pointed his finger straight at Jake. “And I will run you out of this town right along with him. Do you understand?”
“Uh…no sir. Not really. I don’t live here. I have a four or five week job out at the drilling rig and I can stay at any town around that I wish. This is closest to the rig, so that is why I am here. I do have the financial means to go at anytime, sir, but if you don’t mind, I will work with you and anyone from Riverstone to help with anyone who needs help rebuilding their lives.”
“Well, I do mind, Mr…. Mr….whatever your name is.” The two men walked out together. After they were gone, almost everyone clapped. Jake didn’t, though. He dropped his head and was either crying or praying.
That afternoon, most of the Sunset people stayed around Riverstone and rested. They couldn’t get the back hoe here until tomorrow morning, and everyone was too tired to go back to try to sift through the wreckage again. A lady from the school came by and dropped off a few boxes of books for everyone to read, so most were content to stay put.
About 3:30, I got bored and mom said I could go out and wander around town. I headed to the school and nobody was playing on the playground so I went on over to the cotton gin. I got myself a peanut butter bar and sat down in the corner where the rack of shovels and hoes are for sale. I had stayed about half an hour and was about to leave when a group of about six or seven men came in.
“You mark my word, gentlemen,” said a big fat farmer how always wears overalls without a shirt. “Willard James was as mad as a hornet when I saw him. And he is determined to have that meeting tonight. He is not shy about telling the whole town that he wants to run that pastor and that ‘tattoo-ed’ welder out of town.”
A very quiet man who always sits in the very back row at Riverstone raised his hand like he was getting permission from his schoolteacher to speak. “If you don’t mind my saying so, I think Willard is messing this time where he doesn’t need to mess. These people are in great need and someone needs to help them. Why not us?”
One man added, “I’ll bet that if this happened three weeks ago, before that new pastor and that welder came to town, Willard would be the first to step forward and offer help. He just hates that new pastor.”
“Wrong. Willard hates everybody,” said the manager of the gin.
I looked at the rusting John Deere clock on the wall and realized it was 5:30 and supper would be along soon at the Methodist Church. I snuck out the back door by the water fountain and headed toward supper. There was chicken, roast, little baby sausages, even corn-dogs. Yellow jello, some pukey-looking green veggies, and corn-on-the-cob were there, including the most mouth-watering dinner rolls ever.
Luckily, Willard or ‘old man Jackson’ didn’t show up here, it wasn’t their territory. About twenty minutes after we started eating, Ron and his whole family and Jake came in. After supper, Pastor Wiggins stood up to make an announcement.
“I know some of you might not be used to attending church, and that’s fine, but I thought that under the circumstances, we would have a short, very light-hearted service just for you, ‘The Sunset gang”. No heavy ‘Hellfire and brimstone’ sermon, just a time of singing and a little praying that God would get us all through this time of trial. No one is obligated to stay. You may go back to where you will spend the night, either here or Riverstone.”
The lady in # 7 spoke up, “…or we could go over to Riverstone and meet with the two old coots that are meeting there tonight. I assume they are the only ones showing up.” I looked over at Ron and he and the Mrs. were even laughing at that one. Surprisingly, everybody stayed for the service. It was very different. People started asking for prayer for ‘this and that’ and we would stop and pray for that one person, and then another would ask, and we would stop and pray for them. I had never been to a service like it before. Lots of people ended up crying. I think most was happy crying, though.
I looked at my watch and I couldn’t believe it. It was 9:30 and we were still singing and praying and the crazy thing about it was that most of these people never went to church and they all seemed to be having a great time.
We all jumped when the back doors came flying open and knocked against the wall with a bang. We all turned around and saw Willard and ‘Old man Jackson’ standing side by side.
“Well, pastor,” boomed Willard, “I guess you got your way. You can be pastor for one more week. Sunday Morning I will be calling for another special business meeting for one week from tonight. We will have a recall vote then.” The two turned and ran out. The room stayed quiet and still for a few seconds. Finally Pastor Wiggins stood up.
“Ron, I might be out of place, since I am not the pastor of these two men, but would you mind if we had a special time of prayer for them?” Ron nodded his head without speaking. Pastor Wiggins and Jake both took time to pray for them. After that, we slowly got up and some of us walked the short four blocks back to Riverstone. Mom and I lay down quickly in our side-by-side cots but an hour later I found myself just staring in space, not close to sleeping. Quietly I got up and walked into the sanctuary. It was sort of dark but I saw an outline of someone’s head sitting on the front row. I didn’t want to disturb them, so I sat down right where I was. The head turned around but I still couldn’t tell who it was.
“Come on up here with me,” I could tell it was Collette. After I moved and sat down beside her, I could tell she had been crying. We sat there for about five minutes in total quiet. Collette sat up straight and wiped her face dry. “Ya’ know, three weeks ago when I finally decided to leave the big city, I would never have believed a robbery and a tornado would have been a good thing.” I sat there still.
“I am finding out what true church people are like.” I couldn’t tell if she was being truthful or cynical.
“Are you talking about the two ‘grinches’ that are trying to run Ron and Mrs. Anderson out of town?”
She turned quickly my way. “Oh no! I didn’t mean that in a negative way. I am talking about Ron and Alisa, Jake, Mrs. Scott, and a few of the others. I…I’m not a church ‘goer’ at all. I haven’t been once or twice in fifteen years, I guess. I definitely wouldn’t call myself a ‘Christian’ and probably won’t anytime soon. It’s just, well…nobody has loved me, really loved me since way before I ran away from my parent’s home years ago. I have what some would call a ‘checkered’ past.”
“What does that mean?”
“Many, many people would object horribly to the kind of dancing I did. I have been called every bad name in the world because of it. I made real good money doing it, but I seemed to spend every dime I earned. I have nothing to show for fifteen years of making men happy for a few minutes.”
“For making what…?”
“Never mind, Randy. Let me just say that dancing is on the low rung of the ladder for career choices. I have lived fifteen years of ‘hell’. And then I got robbed. And would you believe the first person to give me clothes was a preacher’s wife. That blew me away. She even gave me some cash. Oh, I shouldn’t be telling you that, but it is the truth. She and Ron have been wonderful to me. They don’t care about my dancing, or anything about my past. They care about me, Collette Madison, just for who I am. And what is crazy is all this idiot talk around town about Jake being a drug dealer. All because he has some twenty-five year old tattoos. He is one of the most gentlemanly, if that’s a word, kind of people I have ever met. And then yesterday, during the storm…”
“Yeah,” I jumped in. “Tell me what happened to you while we were all freezing.”
“Well, I guess while you were freezing your tail off, I was sucking on a hundred years of musty dust. I was out knocking on doors looking for a job and I was trying to make one more stop and I knew this storm was getting close and bad ya’ see…And all of a sudden I saw Mrs. Scott running around her yard and she waved for me to follow her. By then I knew it was a tornado and I had no other choice but to follow her. We sat in that musty, dusty hole in the ground for about twenty minutes until we knew the storm had passed and then all of a sudden it was several hours later and there we were having talked on her couch the whole time. She told me all kinds of things about Jesus and the Bible. Stuff I never knew. She really made me think. She didn’t ask me about my past, my dancing, my running away from home, none of that. She just seemed to know that I had a crappy kind of life and knew I needed some kind of change. I can’t begin to say I understand all she said, or agree with it, but she did make me think. Hey…you need to get back in there and get to sleep. If your mom wakes up and you’re not there, it might give her a scare.”
I didn’t say a thing. We both got up quietly and walked back through the maze of halls until we got to our temporary home. When we got inside, she reached out and messed up my hair with a friendly little scritch. “You’re Ok, Randy. You listen well. Thanks.”
“The only circumstance you need to know about sir, is that a special called business meeting has been called tonight, and a tornado is not going to change that.”
Jake continued. “I’m sorry no one informed you yet, sir, but early this morning about twenty of your loyal church members came by to serve us breakfast and to tell us how sorry they were about the storm and most of them agreed that tonight would not be the best time to meet. ‘Called meeting’ or not, Mr. James. I don’t think anybody else is going to show up tonight. And…” Jake paused, “…the man you are trying to run out of town had nothing to do with it. He even suggested that we…you, continue with your meeting. It was everyone else that insisted on not showing up.”
Willard pointed his finger straight at Jake. “And I will run you out of this town right along with him. Do you understand?”
“Uh…no sir. Not really. I don’t live here. I have a four or five week job out at the drilling rig and I can stay at any town around that I wish. This is closest to the rig, so that is why I am here. I do have the financial means to go at anytime, sir, but if you don’t mind, I will work with you and anyone from Riverstone to help with anyone who needs help rebuilding their lives.”
“Well, I do mind, Mr…. Mr….whatever your name is.” The two men walked out together. After they were gone, almost everyone clapped. Jake didn’t, though. He dropped his head and was either crying or praying.
That afternoon, most of the Sunset people stayed around Riverstone and rested. They couldn’t get the back hoe here until tomorrow morning, and everyone was too tired to go back to try to sift through the wreckage again. A lady from the school came by and dropped off a few boxes of books for everyone to read, so most were content to stay put.
About 3:30, I got bored and mom said I could go out and wander around town. I headed to the school and nobody was playing on the playground so I went on over to the cotton gin. I got myself a peanut butter bar and sat down in the corner where the rack of shovels and hoes are for sale. I had stayed about half an hour and was about to leave when a group of about six or seven men came in.
“You mark my word, gentlemen,” said a big fat farmer how always wears overalls without a shirt. “Willard James was as mad as a hornet when I saw him. And he is determined to have that meeting tonight. He is not shy about telling the whole town that he wants to run that pastor and that ‘tattoo-ed’ welder out of town.”
A very quiet man who always sits in the very back row at Riverstone raised his hand like he was getting permission from his schoolteacher to speak. “If you don’t mind my saying so, I think Willard is messing this time where he doesn’t need to mess. These people are in great need and someone needs to help them. Why not us?”
One man added, “I’ll bet that if this happened three weeks ago, before that new pastor and that welder came to town, Willard would be the first to step forward and offer help. He just hates that new pastor.”
“Wrong. Willard hates everybody,” said the manager of the gin.
I looked at the rusting John Deere clock on the wall and realized it was 5:30 and supper would be along soon at the Methodist Church. I snuck out the back door by the water fountain and headed toward supper. There was chicken, roast, little baby sausages, even corn-dogs. Yellow jello, some pukey-looking green veggies, and corn-on-the-cob were there, including the most mouth-watering dinner rolls ever.
Luckily, Willard or ‘old man Jackson’ didn’t show up here, it wasn’t their territory. About twenty minutes after we started eating, Ron and his whole family and Jake came in. After supper, Pastor Wiggins stood up to make an announcement.
“I know some of you might not be used to attending church, and that’s fine, but I thought that under the circumstances, we would have a short, very light-hearted service just for you, ‘The Sunset gang”. No heavy ‘Hellfire and brimstone’ sermon, just a time of singing and a little praying that God would get us all through this time of trial. No one is obligated to stay. You may go back to where you will spend the night, either here or Riverstone.”
The lady in # 7 spoke up, “…or we could go over to Riverstone and meet with the two old coots that are meeting there tonight. I assume they are the only ones showing up.” I looked over at Ron and he and the Mrs. were even laughing at that one. Surprisingly, everybody stayed for the service. It was very different. People started asking for prayer for ‘this and that’ and we would stop and pray for that one person, and then another would ask, and we would stop and pray for them. I had never been to a service like it before. Lots of people ended up crying. I think most was happy crying, though.
I looked at my watch and I couldn’t believe it. It was 9:30 and we were still singing and praying and the crazy thing about it was that most of these people never went to church and they all seemed to be having a great time.
We all jumped when the back doors came flying open and knocked against the wall with a bang. We all turned around and saw Willard and ‘Old man Jackson’ standing side by side.
“Well, pastor,” boomed Willard, “I guess you got your way. You can be pastor for one more week. Sunday Morning I will be calling for another special business meeting for one week from tonight. We will have a recall vote then.” The two turned and ran out. The room stayed quiet and still for a few seconds. Finally Pastor Wiggins stood up.
“Ron, I might be out of place, since I am not the pastor of these two men, but would you mind if we had a special time of prayer for them?” Ron nodded his head without speaking. Pastor Wiggins and Jake both took time to pray for them. After that, we slowly got up and some of us walked the short four blocks back to Riverstone. Mom and I lay down quickly in our side-by-side cots but an hour later I found myself just staring in space, not close to sleeping. Quietly I got up and walked into the sanctuary. It was sort of dark but I saw an outline of someone’s head sitting on the front row. I didn’t want to disturb them, so I sat down right where I was. The head turned around but I still couldn’t tell who it was.
“Come on up here with me,” I could tell it was Collette. After I moved and sat down beside her, I could tell she had been crying. We sat there for about five minutes in total quiet. Collette sat up straight and wiped her face dry. “Ya’ know, three weeks ago when I finally decided to leave the big city, I would never have believed a robbery and a tornado would have been a good thing.” I sat there still.
“I am finding out what true church people are like.” I couldn’t tell if she was being truthful or cynical.
“Are you talking about the two ‘grinches’ that are trying to run Ron and Mrs. Anderson out of town?”
She turned quickly my way. “Oh no! I didn’t mean that in a negative way. I am talking about Ron and Alisa, Jake, Mrs. Scott, and a few of the others. I…I’m not a church ‘goer’ at all. I haven’t been once or twice in fifteen years, I guess. I definitely wouldn’t call myself a ‘Christian’ and probably won’t anytime soon. It’s just, well…nobody has loved me, really loved me since way before I ran away from my parent’s home years ago. I have what some would call a ‘checkered’ past.”
“What does that mean?”
“Many, many people would object horribly to the kind of dancing I did. I have been called every bad name in the world because of it. I made real good money doing it, but I seemed to spend every dime I earned. I have nothing to show for fifteen years of making men happy for a few minutes.”
“For making what…?”
“Never mind, Randy. Let me just say that dancing is on the low rung of the ladder for career choices. I have lived fifteen years of ‘hell’. And then I got robbed. And would you believe the first person to give me clothes was a preacher’s wife. That blew me away. She even gave me some cash. Oh, I shouldn’t be telling you that, but it is the truth. She and Ron have been wonderful to me. They don’t care about my dancing, or anything about my past. They care about me, Collette Madison, just for who I am. And what is crazy is all this idiot talk around town about Jake being a drug dealer. All because he has some twenty-five year old tattoos. He is one of the most gentlemanly, if that’s a word, kind of people I have ever met. And then yesterday, during the storm…”
“Yeah,” I jumped in. “Tell me what happened to you while we were all freezing.”
“Well, I guess while you were freezing your tail off, I was sucking on a hundred years of musty dust. I was out knocking on doors looking for a job and I was trying to make one more stop and I knew this storm was getting close and bad ya’ see…And all of a sudden I saw Mrs. Scott running around her yard and she waved for me to follow her. By then I knew it was a tornado and I had no other choice but to follow her. We sat in that musty, dusty hole in the ground for about twenty minutes until we knew the storm had passed and then all of a sudden it was several hours later and there we were having talked on her couch the whole time. She told me all kinds of things about Jesus and the Bible. Stuff I never knew. She really made me think. She didn’t ask me about my past, my dancing, my running away from home, none of that. She just seemed to know that I had a crappy kind of life and knew I needed some kind of change. I can’t begin to say I understand all she said, or agree with it, but she did make me think. Hey…you need to get back in there and get to sleep. If your mom wakes up and you’re not there, it might give her a scare.”
I didn’t say a thing. We both got up quietly and walked back through the maze of halls until we got to our temporary home. When we got inside, she reached out and messed up my hair with a friendly little scritch. “You’re Ok, Randy. You listen well. Thanks.”
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