Book Reviews

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Chapter 3

The noonday sun peaked through the stained glass windows of Holy Cross Refuge. The small congregation had finished singing the hymn "When We All Get To Heaven."
Dora stood behind the pulpit with her white pastors’ robe loosely hanging off of her arms. She looked as if she just arose from the dead to meet the Lord in the air as she shouted and praised the Lord.
"What a day that will be! Can I get an amen?" She said with the drummer and organ blaring in unison with her every word.
"Amen!" A young man shouted in the back pew.
"Aw y'all don’t hear me, I might as well be talkin' to the walls!" Dora's voice boomed.
"Talk about it!" A woman shouted jumping up and down dancing in the isle while fanning herself and lifting her hands in praise.
"It's gonna be a glorious day! Hey! Glory to His name!" She said running behind the pulpit. She came back to it and yelled into the microphone. "The bible says that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess! He's alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. He's a doctor when you need a doctor, he's a lawyer in a courtroom, he's a friend to the friendless, he's a mother to the motherless! Oh, somebody should be shouting up in here right now!" Dora said while wiping her brow and mouth with her handkerchief.
"Glory! Hallelujah!" The congregation shouted.
The bible also says that every day will be Sunday and the Sabbath shall have no end!" She looked out into the crowed which seemed to calm down a bit.
"Oh y'all don't hear me!"
"Preach on!"
"Ya'll sittin up here like y'all too cute to shout for the Lord! Somebody needs to get up! Oh I tell you I feel like runnin' up in here! How does the song go? If you don't praise the Lord don't you hinder me!" Dora took off again running behind the pew as the drummer and organist played joyfully.
Joshua stood in back of the pulpit facing Dora fanning her as she went by him. He too was feeling the Holy Ghost but he didn’t know weather to run, jump or cry. All he did was shout for joy. By the time Dora reached the podium again she was speaking in tongues. Once the Holy Ghost was done taking control of the crowd, Dora opened her bible and began to preach.

"Everybody please open your bibles and turn to the book of John third chapter, first verse. Please read out loud with me." The congregation did as they were told.
"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him. Verily, verily I say unto thee. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Dora looked up from her bible at the crowd.
"I'm gonna talk to you today on the subject. "You must be born again"
"If you read down a little bit further into the chapter, you will see that Nicodemus has trouble understanding what it means to be born again. He mistakenly thought that he must enter his mother's womb once again. But Jesus," Dora paused then continued. "Wasn't talking about a human rebirth, he was speaking of a spiritual and baptismal birth. Now, I know some of y'all may not understand what a spiritual birth may mean, but if you continue to read the 3rd chapter of John you will see that Jesus explains to Nicodemus what it means to be born again.
But for those of you who have no idea what He was talkin' about, I'm about to help you be aware of what thus says the Lord."
"Alright now talk about it." Someone shouted in the front.
"Jesus was born into this world for one purpose and one purpose only, to save all mankind that they may have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn it, but through him the world might be saved. See, some of y'all don’t know that the Lord was very angry with man, and if Jesus hadn’t come into this world, God would have destroyed it. But, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him would not perish. Meaning, you have a chance to go to heaven to be with him, but you must be born again. You must accept Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior. You must be baptized. But, don’t just ask him into your heart, ask him to let you have a personal experience with him, for the bible says seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be open to you."

"Amen, Amen!" Someone else in the flock bellowed.
"Some folks just tell you “oh just believe in the Lord and you will be saved, yeah that's true, but, you should also seek him, a lot of people say that the Lord don't talk to man, but let me tell you somethin', just as the Lord spoke to Moses and the prophets, he can talk to you too. I know ‘cause he spoke to my soul
God is a spirit that lives within you. Y'all heard that old sayin' it's like fire shut up in your bones? Oh y'all dont hear me!" Dora said with disappointment in her voice.

"Come on pastor!"
"God got a mouth, and he got hands! But, I stopped by to tell you, you must be born again! For on the Day of Judgment, God is gonna judge all of us, and if your name is not written down in the book of life, you will be cast into the lake of fire!
Let me tell you.
A liar, can't make it into heaven!” Dora said melodically then she continued.
A thief, they can't make it into heaven!
An adulteress can't make it into heaven!
A murderer can't make it into heaven!
But I stopped by to tell you, the only way you can make it into heaven, you've got to repent of your sins, you must be born again!"
"Yes sir!"
"Hallelujah!" Everyone shouted.
"I'm just about finished here." Dora continued.
But for those of you who haven't accepted the Lord into your life, I want you to pray with me and repeat after me. Shall we all stand and take it to the Lord in prayer?"
"Father, thou art God, we praise your Holy and righteous name! You sit up high and you look down low, you're so high we can't get over you and so wide we can't get around you. Thou art merciful Lord Jesus you are the Lilly of the valley, the bright and morning star! Lord we come to you with bow down heads and heavy hearts, asking you to have mercy upon us oh Lord, we ask that you forgive us of our sins. Come into our hearts and sup with us Lord for you said in your word if we confess with our mouths that you are God that we shall be saved, you also said that if we have the faith of a mustard seed that we shall say to this mountain move and it shall move. We have faith Lord that you will save us and we know that you hear our prayers. Lord have mercy upon the ones who don’t know you out of the pardon of their sins and forgive them dear Lord. I ask you to come into their hearts and show them the way that they must go. Be with them Jesus and keep us in the safety of your loving arms. We need you Lord for without you we are nothing and we would be lost. Have mercy upon us Jesus. And Lord when we have gone the last mile and come down to our dying pillow, we ask that you give us a resting place in your kingdom where every day will be Sunday and the Sabbath will have no end and we can hear you say "Well done thy good and faithful servant, you’ve been faithful over a few things enter in and rest a while." These and other blessings we ask in Jesus precious name. Amen, Amen, and Amen.

"We gonna open up the doors of the church, if anyone desires to get Christ in their life, weather it be by Christian experience or if you want to get to know the Lord, and be baptized why don’t you come on up here. Somebody give the Lord a praise up in here!"
"Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus!" Came the crowd as they clapped their hands with praise.
Dora was overjoyed when she saw Ann come up to the altar with her two children. A young man came up with her as well.
"Amen!" Dora said she came down from the altar to where Ann sat in front of the church.

Ann thought it was about time she accepted Christ into her life, she knew she needed Him, and she knew she needed him to help her get through the rough time she was dealing with.

The following day started off as usual, that is until lunchtime came around.
Ann had been outside hanging out her laundry when she saw the old blue pickup truck pull up near the front of the church entrance. She froze with fear. Ann recognized the truck, yet she didn’t want to believe what she was actually seeing. She threw the rest of the laundry back into the basket and hid behind the back of the church hoping that her unwanted guest would get discouraged and leave once he found no one around. But, it didn't work. The tall brown haired man, who happened to look like Davey Crocket with his medium length beard, and his brown hair dangling from under his worn out cowboy hat, saw his next victim duck behind the wall.
"Ann honey I know you're there, come on out baby. I just want to talk to ya! I swear I aint gonna hurt ya!"
Ann peeped around the corner of the building. She gasped as she pulled back into hiding. "Oh Lord what is he doing here! How did he find me?" Her body trembled with fear as she continued to watch her husband come closer. She turned around to see if she could make it back into the house. Her only chance was to make a run for it and hope that he wouldn’t catch up to her before she got to the back door.
"Listen if it'll make you feel better, I'm sorry, and I want you to come back home so that we can be a family again. I promise you baby that I won’t lay another hand on ya! I've given up that drinkin’ and stuff."
Ann didn't believe a single word he just said. The wounds and the thought of what happened a few nights prior were still fresh in her memory. She remembered how he would apologize over and over again before, but the beatings kept coming as soon as he felt he was being disrespected. She took off towards the back door, but she forgot to take the latch off when she came out. The door was locked. Ann panicked and yelled as she banged on the door. Dave another roomer Dora took in was in the front room asleep. She prayed that he would hear her as she kept screaming and banging, but it was no use. Ann turned to see her husband smiling at her in a sinister way. He leaned up against the building and took out a cigarette, then lit it.
"How you doin' Ann?"
He said as he took a puff off the cancer stick and blew out the smoke. He lifted his head upwards as if something was in the sky that he wanted to see, then propped his hat up still grinning at her.
"Looks like you're locked out there missy." He said as he stood beside her.
"What do you want Danny? Huh? Why can't you just leave me alone?"
"Aw honey I can’t do that, I love ya' sugar and I need ya, now, why don't you stop all this nonsense and come on back home? I bought ya some daisies from Mr. Wilson's store. Just like ya like'em remember? Remember how I used to bring them home for ya, and you would be so happy, and then you would put them in a vase and set it on the mantle in the living room, cause you wanted everybody who would come in the house to see them and show them off to everybody?"
"Yeah, I remember, but that was before you started beating on me."
"I know honey and I'm sorry about that. Really, I am. I've changed Ann, you gotta believe me. I've been goin' to church and everything and I want to make a fresh start with ya." He said, trying to bend over and kiss her on the cheek. Ann moved away reluctantly, she wanted to believe him but her every instinct told her to back away and run before it was too late. Her moving away from him caused the real Danny to appear.
"Now you listen to me woman!" He said grabbing her arm and holding it tightly like a wrench. Ann screamed.
"Let me go Danny please!"
"Oh I'll let you go alright! When I's good and ready!"
He said digging in his pocket and reaching for his pocketknife. He pulled it out and let the blade playfully run across her jaw line. Fear over took Ann's soul. She started thinking what would life be like for her kids with out her.
"Danny please, please let me go!" Ann said crying profusely.
"Woman, if you don't go fetch my kids and high tail your behind in that truck!" He let go of her arm and grabbed her by the neckline of her dress and yanked her towards his face. He positioned the point of the knife towards neck. It pierced her skin causing a trickle of blood to flow from her jugular vain. He thought he did pretty well hiding his drunkenness from her this time. She hadn’t even noticed that he had been drinking corn liquor earlier that morning. He let out a horrendous laugh as he wiped the blood across her terrified face. He whispered in her ear.
"Get in the car before I really use this on ya!"
"No Danny please!" She screamed. Ann kicked and yelled as Danny pulled her towards the pick up truck.

At that moment, a medium build brown skinned bald headed man appeared at the back door. It was Dave. He had been awakened by all of the commotion. Before coming out, he took the rifle off of the mantle in the living room and ran to the back entrance. By the time he got there, he could see Danny dragging his wife towards the truck. He ran out of the door, and cocked back the hammer and let a round go off. The sound of the gunshot caused Ann and Danny duck. Danny grabbed his hat as he went down. He turned around to see who was the one shooting. He was amazed to see Dave, with a loaded gun. Danny pushed Ann down on the ground and walked back towards Dave. Rage was all over his face.
"Boy have you gone completely mad? Or are you just plain stupid?"
"Naw sir, I aint mad and I aint stupid, but I aint gonna let you take her away from here." He said cocking the hammer back again, and aiming it at Danny.
"Now you listen to me boy!" He said letting the word "boy" stretch out then continuing.
"I think you best be getting back in the house and mind your own business before you do something you aint want to do."
"Oh I will." Dave said.
"Just as soon as Mrs. Ann is safely back in this house, and you go on back from where you came from."
Danny balled his fist up, he wanted to push the rifle out of the black man’s hands and hit him with a right hook, but he thought better of it because he wasn't sure if he could do it with out Dave letting a round off and possibly killing him.
"You know what? I promise you boy, this aint over with! You aint seen the last of me! You can best believe that!" Danny said slowly backing away. Ann had since got up, and was now plastered against the wall sliding towards her hero. Danny walked back to the car, but turned around to shout at the two.

"You aint seen the last of me woman, I'll be back!"
By the time Danny started up the engine and pulled off down the road, Ann stood with Dave holding her injured neck with a piece of her dress she managed to tear off. She cried on his shoulders as the kicked up dirt from the car swirled around them.

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