Andrew Wilson felt uneasy for some reason. He could not put his finger on the problem. As far as he knew there was nothing that should be worrying him. His business was doing quite well. His finances were in good shape. He was getting along with his wife for a change. And his daughter was as popular as he never had been in school. He shrugged off the feeling of uneasiness and decided to go for a swim to clear his head. "A swim and then a long soak in the hot tub. That should do the trick," Andrew thought to himself.
Malachi
Mal drove to his parent’s house Saturday morning. He had meant to go Friday night, but he had been studying Bible prophecy and time had just flown by. It had been midnight before he realized he had missed supper. Mal had to admit he was at least fascinated. And he was hungry to learn more about it. It was a strange feeling. Mal usually picked up the basics of a subject, whatever he needed to get a passing grade for the class, or whatever might be useful to him. And that was the end of his study on the subject. But the Bible prophecy subject just seemed too big to grasp quickly. He wondered if anyone ever fully understood everything in the Bible. Mal had to admit it. He was hooked. Mal had followed the links from the Prophecy web site. He had read about the pages on prophecy already fulfilled. He was overwhelmed by the accuracy of the prophecies in the book of Daniel especially. He considered the number of prophecies fulfilled with the life of Christ. The pinpoint accuracy was more than anything a human could manipulate in one generation, much less over all the generations before Jesus had been born in Bethlehem. The signs of the second coming were there as well. And one particular web site had stuck in his mind as though applied with super glue. It was the plan of salvation for dummies. It had said by grace are you saved through faith. In other words, all he had to do was believe it and he would be an insider. He would have an eternal destination called heaven. To believe it he only had to have the faith of a child. Could he do it? He hoped so. It sounded like a way to peace with God. Of course, prior to a couple of days ago Mal admitted he had no idea he wasn't at peace with God. He hadn't even considered the possibility that God was real, much less that He wanted to make peace with Malachi Jones. Anyway, he was considering it now; he was leaning toward believing it. He was going to talk about it at home tonight. His mom would listen thoughtfully because she respected his opinion. His dad would get mad because he didn't respect anyone's opinion or anyone for that matter. Ann would just disengage from the conversation and let her imagination take her someplace else.
Mal arrived home well before noon and knocked on the back door. He knew his mother would be in that part of the house and he wanted to surprise her first. He also wanted to avoid talking to dad or Ann immediately. He wanted to fill Shelly in on what was going on in his life first and get her reaction. That had been the way he had approached his parents about anything from the time he could first remember. Mom was always the first one to hear what was on his mind. If Shelly was ok with something, then he would push ahead and run it by dad. And he had tried to help his mother with Ann, but Ann was her own person from the start. She was a loner like he had never seen. He had even thought that she might be a true narcissist at times. She really did respond to only what affected her. If it was to her hurt or advantage somehow, you could get her to do something and otherwise she did not care if someone was murdered in front of her. She would take no action, and she would not react either positively or negatively.
Shelly Jones, sitting alone at the table, looking out over the backyard pool, was in a strange mood. She was not happy with several things. Notably she was not happy with Frederick and Ann. Their behavior with the current yearbook situation was simply unacceptable. But Shelly had no idea of how to stop them from embarking on ruining the lives of other people. Shelly knew that vengeance was not supposed to be their job. They could leave it to a higher power and just live their own lives in a way that didn't hurt people. Shelly tried to avoid hurting other people because deep down she knew that was the right thing to do. And, she had a firm belief that there was a mystical place called heaven, and that in order to get there she had to be good enough. She wasn’t too sure what ‘good enough’ was, but she was sure she was good enough when she compared herself to those around her. She even hoped Frederick would eventually do something good enough to get himself into heaven. Maybe she could put in a good word for him if she got there first. Maybe her left-over ‘good’ could go toward his account.
The second thing on her mind was that she was accepting that her marriage was over. It was at least over the way it had been up to now. She had tried appeasing and pleasing Fredrick for close to thirty years and all it had earned her was contempt. So she thought she could explain to Frederick that either there would be some changes or there would be a divorce. Her trust fund was plenty for her to live on very comfortably. And it was hers alone. It was set up so Frederick could not get any of it. She was pretty sure if it came to divorce he would not contest anything if she just left him with his business. She would have to make up her mind about the house. But that was getting ahead of herself. She had to give him a chance to change first. Shelly's thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the back door. Surprised, Shelly got up to answer. That usually meant a friend who knew she was at the back of the house at that time of day. Anticipating a pleasant surprise, Shelly opened the door and was greeted with a big hug from her son.
"Oh Mal, am I glad to see you, extra glad. You simply won't believe what has happened.
Mal, although wanting to tell his mom all about his two new interests, Belle and Bible Prophecy, politely let Shelly tell him her news first. Shelly quickly gave him a rundown on what had happened to Ann with the yearbook, and how Ann and Frederick were planning on handling the situation.
She finished by saying, "Really Mal, you should have seen Ann when she left for the salon yesterday and when she came back home. She had spent a little over $3000 on hair, makeup, and clothes. And you really could not tell a nickels worth of difference. The real difference was she was frowning when she left and smiling when she came back. It is scary."
Mal didn't exactly know what to say. He had had real problems with both Ann and his father in the past. His father was vindictive, even to his own son. Ann was indifferent to anything that didn't directly concern her. Their behavior was not surprising to him. But then he had not been living in the house with them for over 6 years.
"Well, mom, I don't know what to say. I can see you are pretty much wiped out by this. I don't know what I can do. "
"I don't know what to do either. But you said you had something to tell me. Why not tell me and see if it will take my mind off this. You know, let’s talk a while and then go out to eat someplace nice. Ann and Frederick are shopping for Ann a new car. I think they will wind up going to the city. Frederick usually does that when he is car shopping.
"Good idea mom," Mal said. I don't know where to start. I guess I will start by telling you about Belle, because she was my first news, and she is the reason for my second news."
Mal started at the beginning. "This may take a while mom. You may need a very stiff cup of tea before I get finished. Let’s go ahead and go to a nice place to eat. Are you hungry for anything in particular?’
“Actually, I would like to try a new seafood place near hear. They are supposed to have delicious hushpuppies and catfish.’
‘OK mom, that sounds great,’ Mal said. ‘Are you up to a ride in my truck or do we need to take your car?”
‘The truck is fine. I don’t feel like driving,’ Shelly answered.
Angels of Darkness
Cabiri was simultaneously cursing and blessing the internet. Blessing it for all the ways it allowed people a very easy and gradual introduction to all sorts of unwholesome activities. Pornography was about his favorite. It certainly was one of the most useful recruiting methods. The internet also provided an easy intro
duction to the occult. There were web sites for beginning occultists, and advanced. Cabiri loved those sites. He had helped design some of them, from the shadow of the mind of the human designer of course. Cabiri saw many of those sites as his personal handy work.
But he also cursed the internet because of the easy access it allowed to anyone who wanted to study something about the Bible or the creator God. And now he was really steamed about Malachi. He knew Mal was going to convert. The signs were all there. He couldn't stop it at this point. But he did want to stop Mal from having any influence on Ann, Frederick, and maybe even Shelly. The thing about people like Shelly was they often saw themselves as good enough. They felt no ‘need’ to change anything. And it was impossible to change their eternal destination until they realized they needed help to reach the heaven of God.
Angels of Light
Raphael was delighted with the progress Malachi was making with his study of Bible prophecy. He was delighted with his relationship with Belle. Belle had been a concern for Raphael since her parents had been killed by the drunk driver. She had been a delight in that she had never been angry at God for allowing the tragedy. She had never blamed God. From the center of her grief, she had just poured out her heart to God, thanked Him that she and her sister had survived, and asked for help to get through the tragedy. She was a delight.
Shelly was the main concern at the moment. God alone knew who would turn to him and who would reject him. But Shelly did have a good relationship with her son. And Shelly was definitely ready for a change in her life. Raphael hoped she would follow her son's lead. That was good very good.