CHAPTER 5
The summer before Mike and Gene started high school was a summer Gene will never forget. He was drinking almost every day and he found one other thing that he had never noticed before, girls. Gene was a very good looking kid. In junior high, he never could figure out why all the girls wanted to sit by him in class. He knew he was smart and made straight A’s, but they were always bothering him no matter where he went. Some of the girls said they would do anything, if he would just take them out. The answer was always the same, “I’m not about to waste my money on a bunch of girls.”
Everything changed the summer before high school. One night, he went to a beer party with one of his less desirable friends. After three beers, he was feeling pretty good and then he saw her. It seemed as if a bright light in his mind went on. For the first time in his life, he realized why God had put women on this earth. He walked straight over to her and said he was Gene Pittman. She smiled, but did not seem that interested in him at that time. “My name is Paula Albright and my brother is Jerry. That’s him over there.” Gene made a quick glance and recognized her brother as being the meanest kid in school. Even the football players didn’t mess around with him. Jerry had already let everyone know that his little sister would be starting high school in the fall and if you wanted to stay healthy, you had better not touch her.
Gene had heard all about the most beautiful girl at Davenport Junior High and about her older brother at high school. Now, he was face to face with the truth. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. None of the girls at Mason Jr. High (his past school) could compare to Paula. With the music playing loudly and everyone dancing, Gene thought it just might break the ice if he asked Paula to dance. To Gene’s astonishment, Paula accepted. The song was a very fast moving song by The Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis.
But the next song was what all boys like to hear, a slow one. With Paula in his arms and both just barely moving, disaster almost struck. Paula’s brother Jerry danced by with his girl friend. Jerry put his hand on Gene’s shoulder and whispered in his ear. “Touch my sister and you are dead. Give her any beer to drink and I will cut your throat out. Offer her a cigarette and I will wash your mouth out with Drain-O. I think you know what I am saying. Right, BOY?”
Gene was in a fantasy world when he replied, “Oh, yeah, anything you say."
Jerry put his hand around Gene’s neck and gave it a big squeeze and said with gritted teeth, “I will give you a knuckle sandwich, if you don’t understand what I mean.” Gene looked at Jerry and said, “You don’t have to worry, big boy, I know exactly what you mean.” Jerry resumed dancing with his girl friend, but he was bewildered with Gene’s sassy attitude. No one had ever acted or talked like that around him before.
Before the dance was over, Gene had Paula’s phone number and her address. During the next month, Gene would call Paula and they would talk and tell each other things that they were hoping would happen once school started.
When Gene told Mike about Paula, Mike turned three shades of green. “You and Paula Albright are going steady?”
“That’s right. She is my girl. She belongs to me.”
“You don’t own her and if you act like that you won’t even have her as a girl friend for long.”
“Oh, Mike, you don’t understand girls. They all think that I am gorgeous. Just yesterday, Anne told me again that she would do anything, if I would take her out.”
“Anne said that to you?”
“Mike, I am telling you, all the girls love me. I will tell you something else; I am going to take Anne up on her statement. I am going to ask her out and I am going to let her know what I want to do.”
“What are you going to tell her that you want to do?”
“Well, Mike, I think I have to be a man about town and a man about town must have a reputation. I think the best way to get a reputation is to find a girl that will do anything for you, and then tell her you want to go all the way with her.”
“You want to go all the way with Anne?
“That’s right. If I can get her in the mood, I know she will do it with me.”
“Gene, the Bible says that you should not have a sexual relationship with anyone until you are married. You better think what you are doing. You could get Anne or some other girl pregnant.”
“Mike, you know you have not changed a bit from our days in grade school. It is always ‘the Bible says this and the Bible says that.’ By the time you get to be an old man, you will have missed out on all the fun a person can have with all of those taboos the Bible gives you. Why don’t you loosen up and let your feelings run rampant once in a while?”
“If you call smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and whiskey, throwing up, and having sex with any and every girl around fun, then I don’t want your type of fun. I would rather be guided by the Word of God and do what it says and miss out on those things that bring sin in a person’s life. Also, one of these days, you will find that if you let your feelings guide you, you will eventually go down a road of destruction. That is not for me. I would prefer to live seventy years on earth and let the Bible guide me and then have eternal life, other than seventy years of sin and go to Hell forever and forever.
“The Bible says that is exactly what is going to happen, if you continue in sin and do the wrong things.”
“Mike, I don’t believe that is in the Bible at all. As a matter of fact, I think you just said that to make me feel guilty. I will tell you what I will do. If you show me where the Bible says that, I will accept and become a Christian.”
“I don’t know if I can find it or not, but I know it is in the Bible. I just might need some time to find it.”
“I’m not going any place, I will just stand right here until you find it or you confess that you and the Bible are wrong. Why don’t you go and get your Bible and show me what it says?”
Mike walked into the house and picked up his Bible, turned, and started to walk out the door, but then it happen. A small voice told him to pray about the verse and when you open the Bible, it will be there. Mike started to pray that the Lord would guide him to the exact verse that he was supposed to use on Gene.
When Mike walked back to where Gene was standing, he opened his Bible and looked down at the verse. The verse was James 4:14 - 'Whereas ye know not what shall be on the next day. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.' Mike read the verse to Gene and then he noticed verse 17 - 'Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.'
After Mike read the verse, he closed his Bible, and then he looked at Gene and told him that he knew what was right and what was wrong. He also knew what was good and bad. “You cannot say you don't know what sin is.”
About that time, a verse came into Mike’s memory. The verse was Revelation 20:15 - 'And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.' After quoting it to Gene, Mike said, “You see, Gene, your life is but a vapor, if you continue to sin, and if you die without accepting, you will go to that lake of fire known as Hell. I gave you what you wanted and now you must keep your promise. You said you would accept.”
“Mike, you did a real good job in finding all of those verses. However, you hit the nail right on the head. You said he that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. You see, I am a sinner and I guess you can say I am also a liar. I am not going to accept. As a matter of fact, I am NEVER going to accept.”
“Gene, please don’t say that, I don’t want you to go to Hell.”
“Well, I will talk to you later. I have a telephone call to make. KH6-3224. Is Anne there?”
“This is Anne.”
“Anne, this is Gene. Were you busy?”
“Gene, I am never busy, if you are calling. As a matter of fact, I was having a fantasy about you. You remember I said I would do anything, if you asked me out?”
“That’s the reason I’m calling. I want you to go out with me and we will see if you are all talk or if you really want to see some action.”
“I am not lying to you. I will do anything that you ask. Please, just give me a chance to prove how much I really like you.”
“You know I don’t have my license yet, so where could we go so we won’t be disturbed for about twenty minutes.”
“There is one place I go all the time with my boyfriends. It’s right here at my house. My little brother has a tree house that my dad made for him two years ago. It has everything a couple could want, even a bed. That‘s if you were wanting to go to bed with me?”
“Anne, I think you are reading my mind.”
“Gene, I can read your mind and the mind of all boys. They all want the same thing.”
“What night do you want to me to come over?”
“Let’s make it Friday. My dad and mom bowl on that night and for three hours, there won’t be anyone around to bother us.”
Friday night came quicker than Gene had anticipated. For a boy that had never done what he was hoping was going to happen, he was acting just like a Casanova. Two knocks on Anne’s door and the door swung open very slowly. Inside was a very good looking, fifteen year old that had a reputation for getting whatever she wanted, and this night was not going to be any different. She wanted Gene.
Anne took Gene’s hand and walked toward the back door. “See that tree right there? Go on up and wait for me. I have to make two telephone calls.”
Out the door Gene shot like a bullet. Up the tree and he was all ready for what he thought was going to be something close to heaven. He had been there for about five minutes when he heard Anne coming up the ladder.
Anne sat down beside Gene and said she had wanted to kiss him since they were little kids. With one big kiss, Gene’s toes started to curl. Within ten minutes, everything that he had hoped would happen, did happen.
“Gene, I love you so much. When we graduate, I want to be your wife. You love me, don’t you?”
“Oh, oh, yes, you know I love you, Anne, and if you want to get married when we graduate that will be fine. What we need to do is to figure out when we can do this again. Let’s say in one or two days?”
“Gene, all you have to do is to tell me and I am yours, always.”
“Okay. Sunday night, I will be over about eight.”
“Gene, tell me again that you love me.”
“Anne, I love you.”
In Gene’s mind, he had already made plans to go to bed with as many girls as he could while he was in high school. He also wanted the reputation with the girls that, if you go out with him, you had better be ready to give in or you won’t get another date. If it took telling a girl that he loved her in order to go to bed, he decided he would say anything that girl wanted to hear. Anything.
Mike was out mowing the lawn when Gene came running over to him as fast as he could.
“Guess what I did last night?”
“I give up. What?”
“I went over to Anne’s, and you will never guess what we did for ten lovely minutes.”
“Gene, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Mike, I thought you would be really happy that I believe in heaven now.”
“You mean you went over to Anne’s and she led you to the Lord?” Mike asked with astonishment in his voice.
“Well, not quite. We went up in her brother’s tree house where he has a bed and for the next ten minutes, I was in heaven. Mike, I will never again say I don’t believe in heaven, because every time I am with a girl doing what I want to do, heaven exists.”
“Gene, one of these days you are going to regret talking like that and you are going to regret that you went to bed with Anne. The Bible says that your sin will find you out. The things that you are doing with Anne and any other girl will come back to haunt you when you start to have a family. Mark my words, the very same thing will happen to your daughters when they become teenagers.”
“Mike, we may be best friends, but we are as different as night and day. You always have to lean on Christ or you cannot make it through the day. I don’t have to lean on anyone. I don’t need a crutch. Before you even brush your teeth, you have to see if it is in the Bible. Well, I am not like that. I believe, if it feels good, do it.”
“Gene, I’m sorry that you feel that way towards me. Christ is not my crutch. He is my personal savior. He is with me every place I go. He is the one that is guiding and directing me in everything that I do. Without him, I would be just like you. What you need to do is to take a real long look at yourself in the mirror. One of these days, you won’t like what you see. Also, I don’t lean on Christ. But if I am walking and I stumble, and start to fall, He is there to catch me. He isn’t like you at all. He never leaves me and he never stops being my friend like you have done to me many times in the past. Also, without Him, I would have a void in my life that I could not fill even with cigarettes, beer, whiskey, sex, or anything else that you will try in the future. What you need to do is to try Christ and see how He can change your life. But I forgot, you will try everything, but Christ.”
“Mike, I don’t think we are going to be best friends after this. My life seems to be going down a different road than yours. I want everything now. I don’t want to wait and I don’t want to change my life. After last night, I want all the girls I can get and I want all the beer I can drink. You want only the things of the Bible. That is all old fashion. We are living in a new age and a new time. If you don’t get into the swing, you are going to be called an Uncle Tom or maybe something worse. As far as trying Christ, I don’t want to feel guilty every time I do something the Bible says is wrong. I want to feel good all the time; just like I did last night.”
The first day of high school for Mike and Gene finally came. In the parking lot, Gene and Paula talked for ten minutes. Paula said she really did miss talking to Gene during her three weeks at her grandparent’s house in Idaho. As they were walking toward the main building, Anne waved and blew Gene a kiss.
“What is that all about?” asked Paula.
“Oh, you know girls. Sometimes they are infatuated with a guy’s good looks.”
“I know. I can’t take my eyes off of you, Gene.”
Gene took a hold of Paula’s hand, looked in all directions, and led her to the side of the building. At the side of the building, he put his arms around her and kissed her with such intensity that Paula was gasping for air when he was finished.
“Oh, Gene, I think my heart either fluttered or it skipped a beat!”
“Paula, I love you so much I want to be with you all the time. I just don’t know how to express my love for you.”
“One of these days, when we are alone, I bet you’ll figure out a way to express your love for me.”
Gene had thought many times about trying to go to bed with Paula, but each time he considered it a good idea, his conscience started to bother him, and he also was reminded about Paula’s brother, Jerry.
“GENE, MANY, MANY TIMES YOU THOUGHT ABOUT PAULA AND THE THINGS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO WITH HER. BUT YOU SEE, IN HER SECOND YEAR OF COLLEGE, SHE WOULD ACCEPT AND OPEN HER HEART TO THE THINGS THAT WERE HOLY. ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU CONTINUED TO LIVE THE LIFE OF A HEATHEN. I CONSIDER TAKING YOU, BUT I WANTED TO GIVE YOU EVERY CHANCE POSSIBLE. THE DESTRUCTION YOU DID TO YOUNG AND INNOCENT GIRLS AND THE RUMORS THAT YOU SPREAD, LEFT SOME OF THEM DEVASTATED. TWO OF THOSE YOUNG WOMEN NEVER TRUSTED A MAN AGAIN FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.
ALSO, YOU REMEMBER BILLY TEASON? WHEN YOU TAUGHT HIM HOW TO DRINK, HE WENT FROM BEER TO WHISKEY. IN HIS TWENTY FOURTH YEAR OF LIFE, HE DRANK TOO MUCH AT A