CHAPTER EIGHT
The sight was everything Wayne had hoped to
see. For there they all were awaiting
his arrival with Leon. The entire
immediate family back together again.
Well, at least what was left of it. For Bonnie had left a hole in the whole that
he did not think could ever be filled.
“Let’s see, Leon.
There is your Aunt Leslie with your Uncle James and their two children,
who are your cousins. There is your Aunt
Arlynda… Hold on just a minute… Who is that man with her? Who is that woman with your Uncle
Michael? She sure is pretty—isn't
she? Him? Not so much.
Neither is that man with your Aunt Arlynda.”
Leon made a sound Wayne had never heard from him
before. He actually laughed. Leon was barely a week old, and he laughed.
Wayne was shaking his head from side to side in
amazement as he put Leon back into Bonnie’s picnic basket to make it easier for
them to disembark the train. It was a
good thing he did, too! For Wayne still
had one foot on the train step when Arlynda rushed up with tears streaming down
her face to give him a big hug.
“It is so good to see you again, daddy. It was all my fault. I drove you and mom away. I am so very sorry. Please forgive me.”
Your mother and I never stopped loving you,
Arlynda. How could we? For you were our precious daughter, and
nothing could ever change that. Be
assured that you have always had our forgiveness. Who is this with you and your children, and
do I see three other children with him?”
“He is my husband, Calvin. Those are his children, who adopted me as
their mother last year. Calvin and I
have been married for two years now. Did
you not receive my letters?”
Wayne was totally shocked over how different
Arlynda was acting and could only shake his head from side to side to indicate
that they had not received her letters.
Then Leslie walked up and gave him another big hug.
It was around then when Wayne found his voice
again. “What did you do to your sister,
Leslie?”
Both of his girls let loose with a cackle in
response to his question, and Wayne remembered Leon’s laugh. “Where is Leon?”
“Oh, Michaela has him,” Leslie answered.
“Michaela?”
“Michael’s wife, Michaela. They were married three years ago, and a
medical condition will not allow her to carry a child full-term. They have suffered through four miscarriages
so far. It is such a shame, too. For she loves them so—especially babies. We have been afraid she would snatch one or
two and hide ‘em in their house someday.”
Leslie was grinning from ear to ear after she said that last part.
“I suppose we never received the letter about
that—huh?”
“They both wrote letters, and when a reply was not
received in a timely manner, Michael wanted to load up and head down
there. We persuaded him not to out of
respect for your feelings. We figured
that one of you would at least write when ready.”
“I am devastated over not receiving any
letters. They would have made us so very
happy. I do not have an excuse for why
we did not write—neither good, nor bad. I suppose time just slipped away from
us.”
“It happens.”
“So, Michael married Michaela…”
“Yeah, he says that the continued survival of his
bachelorhood didn’t stand a chance once she had him in her sights.”
“Has she had anything to say about that?”
“She has been known to mumble something or another
about having no idea what she was thinking, but with that thick French-Canadian
accent of hers, it is hard to tell for sure.”
“She’s a
Quebecer—eh?”
“Doesn’t respond well to being called, Frog.”
“Oh?”
“Learned that the hard way, I did.”
“Didn’t your brother try to warn you?”
“Nary a word.”
Wayne was still chuckling to himself when he
noticed a man and a woman standing off to the side. They were two of the closest friends Bonnie
and him ever had. They also owned one of
the funeral parlors in town.
When Leslie saw her dad looking at the couple, she
said, “Arlynda has already taken care of the arrangements. They are subject to any changes you want
made, of course. She even insisted on
paying for it all. You wouldn’t believe
how different she is now. You and mom
leaving really shook her to the core.
She didn’t even know how rich Calvin was before they got married, and
she did not care when she found out!”
“Come to think of it, I think I do remember Calvin
somewhat. Isn’t he the oldest son of the
brewery owner?”
“Yes, he is.
He had been living in France with his wife and their three children at
the time. Their marriage was rather
rocky at best, and when Robert came over for a visit before continuing his
search for what fun there might be to find, she took off with him and left
Calvin and their children far behind. It
was like an Italian opera or something.
Anyway, he moved back here to lick his wounds. All it took was one look at Arlynda, and he
was ready to jump right back into the fire.
He was a little wiser this time around, though. So, he masked his appearance to avoid her
falling for him just on account of his money and assumed high position in the
community hierarchy. He wanted her to
fall in love with him on account of the goodness of his heart alone. Arlynda was already broken and felt unworthy
to be loved by anyone. When Calvin
started treating her and her children with such great kindness, she fell hard
for him. His role in that tragic Italian
opera had been changed to a prince in a fairy tale, and her role as a troll was
changed to a princess. They officially
adopted each other’s children last year and plan to live very happily together
ever after.”
“Wow, what a script. Who could write something that great?”
Wayne’s question went unanswered for the time
being. He meant it to be rhetorical,
anyway.
Wayne did have another question for Leslie,
though. “We have all suffered so very
much these last few very long years. It
is so very good that most things have worked out as well as they have, but let
us leave the troubles of the past in the past—okay?”
“That would be fine with me, dad. With all of us, I am quite sure.”
After leaving the train depot, the family all
gathered together for the evening at the house Wayne and Bonnie had called home
and raised their children in. Michael
had remained in the place after their parents made the move down south, and he
had moved Michaela in after they became officially and most blissfully wed.
Michael waited to spend some alone time with his
father until his sisters and their families had left to go to their respective
homes. Michael's patience proved to be
most rewarding for them both.
“How did you meet Michaela, Michael?”
“I was fishing for trout from the southern bank of
the Lesser Seine River one day when this split-tail entangled her line with
mine. I was at that very narrow section
of the channel, and she was on the opposite bank. She cast her line right over mine, and then
had the unmitigated gall to accuse me of causing the mess!”
“I imagine you were quite surprised to find her
hooked on the other end of your line when you went to reel it in.”
“Surprise had nothing to do with it. I was plumb pissed!”
“Then what happened?”
“The only way I could see to resolve the matter was
to cut my line and call it a day. I sure
hated to, though. For on top of it being
a matter of principle, I had on that green mosquito you tied for me when I was
little more than a young buck.”
“It looks like it still worked out for the best,
though.”
“Yeah, I suppose so,” Michael replied with a big
grin. “It turned out that she was the
daughter of one of the biggest outfitters in all of Canada, and I can now buy
any kind of fishing tackle and hunting equipment I could ever dream of at
cost!”
“Aren’t you skipping a few steps?”
“Okay. It
became to where she was somewhere in sight everywhere I went to go fishing or
hunting. I just ignored her for a while,
but when she caused a big buck I was taking aim at to bolt before I could
squeeze the trigger, I had to put an end to the nonsense. When I not so calmly asked her what her
problem was, she said that it would cost me dinner to find out. The rest is history, as they say.”
“What did you feed her? It must have been something really good. After all, you got your looks from me, and
you have never been all that charming.”
“Well, of course it was! You didn't raise no fool.”
They both erupted in raucous laughter. Michaela came into the room to shush them
because Leon was sleeping, and the two fully-grown men turned into a couple of
young schoolboys quietly snickering to themselves over an inside joke. Michaela left the room in feigned disgust.
The next two days passed with a flash. Michaela had succeeded in fully confiscating
Leon, and Wayne was thrilled. When he
asked Leon what he thought about staying with her and Michael, Leon waved his
arms and kicked his legs in an excited fashion.
Wayne fully expected to hear him talking any day now.
Bonnie’s funeral and graveside memorial service
were truly amazing. It looked like the
entire town and half of the county were in attendance. Wayne could not help but think about how touched
Vonnie would have been.
Wayne was asked to give a eulogy, but he
declined. For he wanted it to be much
more of a celebration of Bonnie’s life than a sorrowful acknowledgement of her
death, and he did not believe that he could utter a word without dissolving
into a pool of tears.
Wayne felt absolutely exhausted afterward. The family and a few very close friends came
over to the house to commiserate about Bonnie, and Wayne excused himself to go
out onto the front porch and sit for a little while with Leon on the swing he
and Bonnie had spent hours and hours sitting on over the years.
Wayne thought about all that had transpired the
last month—the last six months, actually.
He wondered to himself what happened to Ruby and if she was even still
alive. He quickly changed the subject
because of how depressing memories of her had become.
Wayne looked over at Leon, and his heart was filled
with joy again. It was of the rather
bittersweet variety, though.
As if Leon could read Wayne’s mind, he reached out
his little hand toward him. As Wayne
took Leon’s hand in his, he heard Leon say, “It will be as it should be in the
end, grandpa. You can rest in peace soon
enough.”
Wayne was too exhausted to marvel over Leon’s first
words. For a dark wave of fatigue had
washed over him, but he closed his eyes with a smile on his face.
A few minutes later, Michaela came out of the house
to check on Wayne and Leon. She took one
look at Wayne and rushed back into the house.
She quickly came back out with Michael, who confirmed what she had
suspected. His beloved father was indeed
dead.
Well, not exactly.
For Wayne was actually between life and death and still had a decision
to make.
“Are ready to accept Me now?”
Wayne opened his eyes to see a man standing before
him with His arms stretched out wide.
Wayne thought that he must be dreaming, but he decided to play along,
anyway. For as far as He was concerned,
it was not as if he had anything else really pressing to take care of or even
better to do at the moment.
“Who are you?”
“I am the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be your Savior, if you will have
Me.”
“Am I dead?”
“Your body is dead, but you obvious are not. Not quite yet, that is.”
“Are you the One they talk about in church?”
“Yes, but I would much rather them talk with
me. I have been talking to them since
they were in the womb. I have been
talking to all of mankind from that time until at least a person’s time runs
out in the material realm. A few have
talked with me, but most refuse to believe they can, as is their right.”
“The material realm?”
“It is where you have been living—the material
realm or the natural world. Everything
there is temporary while the Spiritual realm is eternal. The material realm was
never meant to last but for a little while in comparison to the whole of
eternity.”
“Oh, then I am in Purgatory—right?”
“No, no such place exists. There was never a need for one. How could there be? For how would it be possible to earn
something that is freely given as a gift of My grace, My love?”
“What about penance?”
“None required.
None wanted. That is one of far
too many demonic doctrines readily adopted by some to maintain control over
others and generate great material wealth for themselves in the process. Again, as is their right.”
“Are you helpless to prevent such?”
No, not at all, but what others intend for evil, I
use for good. I make it obvious when
something is wrong, but who is so blind as the one who does not want to see?”
“You said that You wanted to be my Savior. What do I need to be saved from?”
“Destruction.”
“What? Am I
not already destroyed? You said that my
body is dead and implied that whatever is left of me is about to be dead.”
“I implied no such thing. Your soul is facing death, nonetheless. For the wages of sin is death, but whosoever
will just accept Me as their own personal Lord and Savior will live forever.”
“Who made a stupid rule like that?”
“I did, actually.”
“Who are you to make such a rule? Do I not have the right to live as I please
without being beholding to anyone?”
“I am your Creator, and yes, you did have the right
to live as you pleased. I gave you that
right, but I did not give you the right to live forever like that. I created you. You belong to Me. I am the Lord God Almighty. You recognize that there is a higher power
than yourself. There is no higher power
than Me. It would be different if I was
just a superior being seeking to gain and maintain control over lesser beings,
who came to be in the universe in the same way as I did. There is no such thing as evolution. Although, there is a natural order of things
operating in the universe. I established
that order. I established the so-called
laws of nature and the laws of physics, but I am not subject to those
laws. I created the universe. I created everything that exists, and
everything that exists belongs to Me.
You would have never existed to begin with unless I created you, and I
have the right to end your existence whenever I please. I have the right to end the existence of
everything I created.”
“Wait a minute.
Let me get this straight. You
offer to save me now, but You can destroy me later on at a time of your
choosing? How am I supposed to live with
an arrangement like that?”
“By faith.
You must trust that I will keep My promise.”
“It is all so very complicated. That is why I never had any use for religion,
philosophy—none of that stuff.”
“As you should not have had, but you could have had
a very close and personal relationship with Me your entire life in the material
realm. The absolute truth is not very
complicated at all. When understanding
is based on religion and philosophy, it does appear to be complicated, but what
I have actually said about it is simple.
Everything I have done, everything I have created, has been to
accomplish one purpose. This purpose is
to make it possible for Me to receive love that is freely given for the right
reason, and to receive it more abundantly.
You asked your daughter, Leslie, who could write a script as great as
Calvin’s actual courtship of your other daughter, Arlynda. I could.
I actually did. Calvin’s
courtship of Arlynda is a dim reflection of My courtship of mankind. I am all-powerful, all-knowing,
always-present and perfect in all of My ways.
Tell me, what would you have done if I had of visibly appeared before
you in all of My glory sometime during your life in the material realm?”
“I would have tried to bury my face in whatever I
was standing on at the time out of fear.”
“Exactly, and others would lay prostrate before me
in false humility out of their desire for personal gain. Hence, the reason why I hid Myself from the
sight of mankind in the material realm.
For I do not want worship based on fear or greed. Tell me, what would you have done in my
place? Would you be satisfied with being
loved for the wrong reasons?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“No, you most certainly would not. You wanted to be loved as you were loved by
Bonnie. She was free to love someone
else, but she chose you. You were not rich
and powerful, nor even all that physically attractive, and yet, she loved you
with all of her heart. She loved you
like that because of the goodness of your heart. That is what I want. It is what I have always wanted. Did you want to have children?”
“I really did not care either way, but Bonnie
wanted children. I wanted to give her
all I could of whatever she wanted. If
that included children, so be it.”
“Did you not come to want them as badly as she
did?”
“Oh yes.”
“Why?”
“I had no idea just how much joy a child could
bring into my life. My parents always
treated me like I was a farmhand—little more than a slave expected to do what I
was told to do and when I was told to do it.
I never felt loved by my parents.
Since I did not need a farmhand, nor anyone to work at my business or
around the house, I saw no need for children.
Bonnie understood what a good relationship between a parent and their
children should be. I loved her loving
Leslie, our firstborn, so much, and I
basked in the warmth of the love I was receiving from Leslie on account of
her. I looked forward to watching her
grow-up as much as Bonnie did. I was as
excited as she was over her becoming pregnant again, and it was the same for
the third time.”
“Was the kind of love you were receiving from your
children the same as what you were receiving from your wife?”
“Not, not really.
The love between Bonnie and I was richer and more intense, but as our
children matured, the love between us and them became richer and richer.”
“Why do you think the kind of love between you and
your children was different than the kind of love between you and your wife?”
“I don’t know.
I had never really thought about it before. I suppose it had something or another to do
with love between a good parent and their children being taken more for
granted. A good parent is expected to
love their children with all of their heart, and in turn, the parent expects to
be loved by their children with all of their heart. A parent can chose to want or not want their
child, but they have no choice of what or who their child will be. They can mold their child to a certain
extent, but they have no choice of whether a child will accept or reject what
their parents want. A child can be
forced to comply, but that does not mean that they will come to accept it. If a child does not like the way their
parents want them to be, they are not going to love their parents like they
should or even any at all. In sharp
contrast, a man and woman are free to love and marry whoever they chose. Well, at least from a western
perspective. In a prearranged marriage,
the love shared between a husband and wife is much more like that shared
between a parent and their child.
Whereas, nothing is taken for granted between a husband and wife when
their marriage was not prearranged.
Well, at least nothing should be taken for granted. When it is good, it is not by either one. Whoa, I just remembered being told that you
want us to be your children by faith. Is
that true?”
“Yes, but I did not want mankind to take anything
for granted. I could have very easily
created mankind to live in My Kingdom of Heaven from the start, but I wanted
there to be an appearance of separation between Me and mankind. So, I created the material realm and placed
mankind in it as they naturally are. The
love that I have for mankind is much more enduring than the kind of love a
child can receive from their biological parents and much more intense than the
most torrid of love affairs in the material realm. I receive love from My holy angels, but I
wanted more. This does not mean that I
do not greatly value the love that I receive from My holy angels, but they have
been given every reason to love Me. They
dwell in My Kingdom of Heaven, where everything is perfect. They are not subjected to it being too hot or
too cold. They are not subjected to
storms. They are not subjected to bodily
injury, disease, heartbreak, nor pain of any kind. They do not become hungry or thirsty. They do not need clean air to breath. They do not need to sleep. They do not become tired, and they always
have enough strength to do what they were created to do, which is to serve
Me. Of course they should love Me. Ah, but it takes a very special kind of love
to give it to someone unlovable. You and
Bonnie were given some first-hand experience with that. For Arlynda was unlovable for quite some
time, but you both kept giving her your love.
Yes, a good parent should love their child, but some children are harder
to love than others. Arlynda came to
recognize just how great, how special, the love her parents had for her was
when she came to recognize just how unlovable she had been. She also recognized just how great, how
special, the love that Calvin was offering to her was. Yes, she fully recognized that she was
incredibly physically attractive, but that was severely tarnished by how
unlovable she was. Yet, Calvin still
wanted to love her. That is the kind of
love I want to receive from My children by faith. A child has no choice of who their biological
parents are, but they have a choice of whether or not they want to be their
child. No, there is no changing whose
blood is coursing through their veins, but what kind of a relationship can a
good parent really have with their child if their child does not want to accept
them as truly being their parent? No,
there is no changing the absolute truth of the matter truly being that I am
your Creator, but what kind of a relationship can I really have with you if you
do not want to accept Me as truly being your Heavenly Father?”
“Are you my Heavenly Father or my Savior?”
“I am both, and I also manifest Myself as being the
Holy Spirit. My Holy Spirit. Who works in the material realm to accomplish
My purposes.”
“How can this be?”
“Does it really matter? I left room for doubt to allow for faith in
the natural realm. There is no reason to
doubt when you can physically see and naturally understand something, but it
takes faith to believe in what you cannot see and understand. The need for faith in Me never ends. For you have no guarantee of your continued
existence in My Kingdom of Heaven other than My promise, My assurance that I
have always wanted you to spend all of eternity with Me in My Kingdom of Heaven
as an heir to all that is Mine in glory.
I wanted to receive the kind of love that exists in a good marriage, but
in a good marriage, the husband and wife can think of themselves as being
partners in the relationship. For they
have earned the love and respect of the other.
I did not want that with mankind.
So, I made it to where it could never righteously happen. For there is nothing good about humanity
apart from Me. Whatever good they may do
is actually Me doing it through them.
No, there is no way for you or anyone like you to earn my favor. Ah, but I wanted to earn the special kind of
love that I can receive from My children by faith. What makes that love so special is that I
have generally presented Myself as being unlovable. I gave mankind good reason to think that I
created most, if not all, of them to be the objects of My scorn—certainly not
My affections. Yes, I have clearly given
My promise, but actions speak louder than words. After all, how can I really be as loving and
merciful as I profess to be when the material realm is filled with pain and
sufferings of every kind. Even what is
naturally considered to be a perfect life in the material realm is not all that
perfect. For it ends. How can a life truly be perfect if it
ends? Yes, I have kept declaring that
there is a better day coming, but until it is actually here, it has to be taken
on faith that it is coming. I keep
declaring that life in My Kingdom of Heaven will last for all of eternity, but
how can that be fully realized when eternity lasts forever and ever? It is not like I am promising that life in My
Kingdom of Heaven will last for a billion years and you could wait until that
billion years comes to pass to actually see that I have kept My promise. For eternity never ends. Therefore, you have to keep taking it on
faith that I will keep My promise. I
proved that I am worthy of receiving all of your faith by not just saying that
I love you enough to die for you, I went ahead and actually did it by sending a
full and equal part of Myself to suffer enormously on a cruel, cruel Roman
cross and actually Spiritually die. For
mere physical death was not enough to fulfill My Law, the Law that established
the wages of sin is death—Spiritual death to be exact. For all of mankind will physically die, but
only those who reject My Gospel will perish on account of their own sins. All who will want Me as their own Heavenly
Father and humbly accept My free offer of salvation will live forever and ever. The choice is theirs to make. Even those who physically died before they
reached their own age of accountability or were never mentally capable of
accepting Me and My Gospel during their time in the material realm will be
given a choice of whether to stay or not.
For it would not accomplish My purpose to force anyone to spend all of
eternity with Me in My kingdom of Heaven as an heir to all that is Mine in
glory against their will. That was Me on
that cruel, cruel Roman cross. See, I
still bear the scars from the nails. I
spent three days in the grave and separated from the rest of Me to fulfill a
prophecy about Me connecting the three days the Prophet Jonah spent in the
belly of the great fish I prepared for that purpose, but those three days were
from a natural perspective. From a Spiritual
perspective, it was merely a few seconds.
For a thousand years in the material realm is like a day in the
Spiritual realm. There was no need for
Me to be Spiritually dead any longer than that.
You and your beloved wife were spared fully realizing her physical
death. For you were not there, and she
was asleep at the time. Nonetheless,
your beloved wife physically dying before you did gave you a tiny sampling of
the pain and agony We, as My heavenly Father, Holy Spirit and Myself, went
through because of My Spiritual death.
For what We actually felt was more painful and agonizing than mankind
can even start to naturally comprehend.
There are not enough numbers to accurately determine the full measure of
Our misery. I assure you that it was
well worth enduring, though. The kind of
love I can receive from you and your kind is well worth paying the ultimate
price for. It has been made easy to
think of Me as being cold and unfeeling, but there is a great lake in My
Kingdom of Heaven that holds the tears I have shed for mankind. I have felt every little bit of pain and
suffering I have subjected mankind to. I take full responsibility for it
all—even the actions of the devil and his demons. For none of it could have
happened unless I allowed it to. I
created the material realm and placed mankind in it as they naturally are
without any defense against sin in themselves.
Then I allowed sin to enter into the material realm and established My
Law in order to make it easier for mankind to know that they were desperately
in need of a Savior because of not being good enough in themselves to be one of
My children by faith. It is not required
of a person to prove themselves as being worthy of My favor. All I humbly ask for is to be given the full
benefit of their considerable doubts and to believe in Me. The wrath I will pour out on the wicked, come
Judgment Day, is much more about My heartbreak over their rejection of Me than
any sort of righteous indignation. Those
who wanted to be Mine will not be judged.”
“Have you done for others like you have done for
me?”
“No, I called to some at a very early age while
others were not called until just before they took their last breath in the
material realm. It all depended on what
I wanted to accomplish in and through each individual. You serve as an example of a very obstinate
child. It was not necessary for some to
see anything miraculous to believe while others would never want to truly be
one of My children by faith—even if I visibly appeared before them in all of My
glory. I have known since before I laid
the foundation of the material realm who would and would not want to truly be
Mine. I allowed the wicked to come into
existence in order to further prove just how good and merciful at heart I truly
am. For I showered them with My love
while knowing full well that they would never love Me back. I heaped My bounty on them while knowing full
well that they would never appreciate it.”
“I am so very sorry for all of the extra trouble I
have put You through. Please forgive me,
but I am certainly undeserving of Your love.”
“You are well worth the effort. It is time for you to rest in peace now, as I
had Leon tell you. Great will be My joy
when the time comes for Me to gather you and the rest of My children by faith
unto Myself to spend all of eternity with Me in My Kingdom of Heaven as heirs unto
all that is Mine in glory. It will come
soon enough.”
All of that had taken less than a millisecond. A twinkling of our Heavenly Father’s eye, if
you will.
Leon missed Wayne, but he could not have been
happier with having Michael and Michaela as his dad and mom. Whenever Michael was not at work, Leon was
right there beside him. He became like
Michael’s shadow, and truly loved hunting and fishing.
Michaela would sometimes also go on a hunt or be
out in the boat fishing with them, and a very good time was had by all. It did not matter if they brought home
anything to eat or not. Just being
together was more than enough.
As was mentioned before, Leon could not accompany
Michael to work at the brewery.
Therefore, he would spend much of that time helping Michaela around the
house, and Michaela would help him pursue his educational interests.
Leon wanted to know everything, and he was like a
sponge soaking up knowledge. The county
library was located in town, and Michaela would go with him to pick out books
to take home for study. The library was
well-stocked with an assortment of classical literature and informative works
on science, mathematics, philosophy and the arts.
Life for Leon remained as such for the next four
years. What changed was him being
invited to attend a very prestigious private school on a full scholarship. It was an amazing opportunity, and not one
that Michael and Michaela would deny Leon.
The only drawback was the school being located in
an area that did not allow any hunting and fishing nearby, and the closest
legal game was a half-day’s ride away.
Leon was still too young to live without his parents when he was not in
class, and Michael was glad to move Michaela and himself there for as long as
it took for Leon to graduate to a higher level of education.
The plan was for them to come back home to spend
holiday breaks with the rest of the family, and this let Michael and Leon heed
the call of the wild before they both went plumb insane. It all worked well for a year and a half.
It was during an Easter/spring break when an angry
squall came on Michael, Michaela and Leon while they were out in a boat fishing
for whatever may have been biting at the time.
Michael valiantly tried to safely row the boat ashore, but the fierce
wind smashed the boat to pieces on some jagged rocks. Leon was the only one to survive.
In fact, Leon was the only one to survive in the
entire family. For that angry squall was
actually the outer edge of a huge tornado that tore a wide path through
town. There were only a few structures
left standing, and the rest of Leon’s family perished in the storm. His home was one of structures left standing,
but to Leon, a home is just a house without a family to dwell in it.
Leon felt like he had been field-dressed as he sat
alone in that big and very empty house. There
was evidence to the contrary, however.
For field-dressing removes the organs, and Leon’s heart remained, and.
There was a sizable portion of Leon that wished his
heart had gone with the wind. For it was
filled with rage, and this made him even angrier.
Leon did not know who to focus his rage on, but he
felt like someone was responsible.
Mother Nature came to mind, but it was a hollow thought.
Leon’s mood mellowed a little when he spotted a
couple of letters sticking out of one of the top drawers of the desk in the
living room. He was somewhat reluctant
to read them, though. For holding black
and white reminders of the great love he had just lost would be so very hard to
take at the time, but curiosity over what the letters were about gnawed on him.
One of the letters was the one Wayne had written to
Michael before heading back up north.
Leon’s eyes filled with tears as he felt the agony in Wayne’s gut-wrenching
words. Then he gasped in utter
disbelief. For Leon had come to the part
about him and his biological mother, Ruby.
Leon had a faint memory of Wayne, and he had suspected
that Wayne really was not his grandfather.
Well, at least not in regards to Wayne and him being related by blood, but
nothing had been said to Leon about it.
Leon’s shock increased exponentially when he read
the other letter, which had been written by someone named William and addressed
to Wayne. For William had wrote that the
undertaker had suspected foul-play being involved in Bonnie’s death and had
sent off some of her tissue samples to be tested for poison. It was a new procedure being conducted in a
lab a fair distance from Whistling Pines. and it had taken over a month for the
results to come back showing excessive amounts of nightshade and hemlock being
detected. William also wrote that he did
not think Wayne would want to pursue a criminal prosecution of Ruby, but he
felt like Wayne should know about the poisoning. Leon’s rage returned with a vengeance.
It was well after dark before Leon went to stand on
his feet. Leon had just sat there with
his mind ablaze. He was not thinking of
anything in particular. Everything and
nothing at the same time would be an apt description.
Then Leon decided to take off down south in the
hope of picking up his biological mother’s trail. “Who knows,” he thought, “I might even
discover who my biological father is or at least was? Besides, there was certainly nothing left for
him up north as far as he was concerned, and the legend of Little Lost Leon was
born.
2 comments:
This is an amazing story.
Thanks for stopping by again, my dear Crystal Mary!!! Yes, it truly is, and it keeps becoming more amazing. Be assured that I can say that without shame because I am not really the author of it. For I really do consider myself as being nothing more than merely a scribe placing into written form what our Heavenly Father is giving me to say (so to speak). Of course, since I am sometimes given the freedom to put my own spin on something, I can still really mess up his story. Sigh.
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