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  “Go head, baby. I’ll come help in a minute,” Nina said and then turned back to her husband. “They should be here with Iona in a little while. They wanted to attend this revival to support you. Will you allow them to do that, honey, please?”

  Nina got up without waiting for a response. She gave the ushers and greeters instructions for the evening. The volunteers were out in the neighborhood passing out more flyers, letting the people know that Pastor Isaac Walker would be speaking tonight and that free food and games would be offered each night of the revival. Neighborhood crack heads, drug dealers, and hard-working residents began to show up to eat, laugh, and enjoy themselves with other neighbors.

  Nina was reviewing last minute serving instructions with the food-service volunteers when Keith, Cynda and Iona showed up. She watched as Isaac walked over to his friend, his enemy and his child, and prayed that her husband wasn’t about to act a fool.

  Isaac told Iona to go help Nina, then turned back to Keith and Cynda and said, “Don’t take my child out of my house without my permission again.”

  Cynda put her hands on her hips and told Isaac, “I don’t need your permission to see my own child.”

  “The courts would disagree with your negligent, unfit self,” Isaac told Cynda not caring about the people starting to gather around to listen to their conversation.

  “Be reasonable, Isaac. Cynda is not the same person she used to be. Everyone deserves a second chance,” Keith said.

  “How many chances are you going to give her, Keith? What does this woman have to do before you give up?” Isaac asked.

  Cynda exploded, “How dare you judge me. What you need to do is turn that signifying finger of yours on yourself,” she said.

  He moved closer to her and put his finger in her face. “Judge you? Isaac laughed cruelly. “I don’t even think about you. And I’ll tell you another thing; my daughter is just fine without you. She doesn’t need your kind of drama.”

  “Your daughter? Your daughter?” Cynda screamed, arms flailing. People around them whispered, laughed and pointed. “You never knew her. That’s my daughter.”

  “Why didn’t I know her, Cynda? Because you never opened your trashy mouth to tell me about her.”

  Keith tried to pull Cynda away. “Let’s go Cynda, we don’t need this.”

  She shoved Keith. “I’m not finished talking to the great Isaac Walker,” she told Keith, then turned back to face Isaac. “I didn’t tell you about Iona because you sold me to Spoony.”

  Isaac glared at her, lip curled.

  “Remember that? How much had I been worth back then, Isaac?”

  Arms folded, lip twisted, Isaac said nothing.

  “Fifty cents is what I went for, right?” She was in his face, fire in her eyes. “And you have the nerve to judge me for being a prostitute when you are the one who made me one.”

  “You can’t blame me for what you did to yourself.”

  “I had help, you hypocrite!”

  Her lips tightened and he warned her, “If you even think about spitting on me, I will knock you across this room,” said the preacher. She’d spit on him before and he’d just let it go. Back then she was just an embittered ex-girlfriend. Today, he knew her to be the betrayer who snitched on him and kept his child a secret for ten years. If even a drop a spit left her mouth while she spoke, he’d knock her out, and repent later.

  Iona pushed her way through the crowd and yelled at Isaac. “Don’t hit my mom, Daddy.”

  Keith moved Cynda out of the way. He and his old friend stood glaring at each other.

  Isaac said, “What?”

  “That’s my wife, man,” Keith said.

  Isaac snorted. “Well, your wife looks like she’s pregnant again. Who’s the daddy this time?”

  Eyes downcast, Keith answered honestly, “We don’t know.”

  Cynda marched away from the scene, huffing and cursing. Nina told Donavan to grab Iona and take her into the tent area. She then walked over to the two men and told Keith, “You need to go check on your wife.”

  “He better rush,” Isaac said. “There’s a lot of men out here with money to burn.”

  “Isaac, that was not called for,” Nina admonished him.

  Keith clenched his fists and hit Isaac in the mouth.

  Isaac stepped back and put the back of his hand to his mouth and wiped the blood from his lip. “You puffed up, huh? Ready to get knocked out?”

  Keith’s fist remained clenched, his legs spread apart, bent – ready to spring. Isaac’s fist tightened.

  Nina grabbed Isaac’s arm. “Don’t do this. I’m begging you.”

  Isaac stepped to his old friend, ready for a brawl.

  Nina stepped between them. “Don’t do this.”

  Isaac stopped. “I’m cool, Nina.” He unclenched his fist and smiled as he turned to Keith. “Hey, after all these years of friendship, if you can’t get one punch off, then we’ve never really been friends, right?”

  Keith wasn’t smiling. “You’re a hypocrite, Isaac. Just like Cynda said, and I don’t want anything else to do with you.” He turned and walked away as Isaac tried to call him back.

  ***

  Even with all that had happened, Isaac still felt that he should preach the word that night. Before the event, Isaac labored over the message that he would deliver to these people who had lived without God as he once had. God had given him a message of love. He would tell the people about God’s compassion and His long suffering. But Isaac could not get past the ungodly anger he felt towards Cynda and he needed to convince his self that his feelings were justified. So when he opened his mouth, the message of love he’d prepared got lost in legalism and rules. Isaac preached about the woman at the well, but he didn’t preach about God’s compassion for her. The way Isaac explained the scene at the well was that Jesus told the woman how treacherous she was and how many men she’d had, and instead of the woman repenting for her sins, she brought others to hear what the Lord had to say as if He were some sort of traveling road show.

  “That’s why,” Isaac continued, “the Bible admonishes us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. But you can’t tell some Christians nothing. They want to make their own rules.” He stumbled around scriptures such as, ‘don’t cast your pearls before swine,’ and he told them that God is not mocked; what a man sows he shall reap. Needless to say, by the time he closed his message and made an altar call, his congregation was too confused to know whether or not they wanted the God Isaac offered them, so they stayed in their seats.

  29

  Keith broke speed-limit laws barreling down I-70, trying to put as much space between him and Isaac as possible.

  Cynda was captivated and bewildered all at the same time. She asked, “Why do you love me?”

  “Huh?”

  She turned sideways in her seat, facing him. “Look, Keith, you just threw away a twenty-five-year-old friendship with someone that I know you would have died for. But because of me, you walked away from your best friend. If that doesn’t convince me that you love me, nothing will. But I just don’t understand why you love me?”

  Taking her hand in his and squeezing it he said, “I love you because of your sweet disposition.”

  Cynda shoved him. “I’m serious, Keith. Why do you love me?”

  He let go of her hand and put a Smokie Norful CD in the CD player. “You’re my wife. Who am I supposed to love if not you?”

  She turned away from him, eyes downcast. “But I’m all wrong for you. You should have married someone else. I’ve got too much baggage, Keith. I don’t know how to give or receive your love.”

  His thumb gently stroked her hand. “Why don’t you rest your mind and let your heart take over?”

  “Because I don’t want to love you,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. The man was insufferable sometimes, the way he held onto things. “Isaac is right, Keith. If you stay with me, I’ll just ruin your life.” She turned back toward him with questioning e
yes. “What about the women at your church? Before you decided to marry me, you were interested in Janet, right?”

  He laughed. “I plead the fifth.”

  “I’m serious, Keith. She would jump at the chance to be with you. I saw it in her eyes that day she came to the house.”

  “Janet is not the woman for me. You are, and I’m okay with that. More than okay.”

  She shook her head. “This thing between us isn’t going to work. You’re a good man. But a few months with me and I’ve got you ready to fight your best friend and throwing away a chance to work in the ministry you told me you wanted to be a part of.”

  “There are other street ministries that I can work in.”

  “But you wanted to work with Isaac.”

  He held up his hand. “End of discussion. I won’t work with a man who doesn’t respect my wife.”

  “I don’t need you to defend my honor. You’re not my protector, Keith.”

  Keith shushed her as the wondrous sound of Smokie Norful’s In The Middle filled the car.

  When you were in need I provided, when you couldn’t see I led the way.

  Keith brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “I might not be your protector, baby. But God is, and He provided me for you.”

  I was there in the middle of your pain, I was there when they tried to take your hope away.

  Fuming, Cynda ejected the CD. “You’ve been here for me, Keith. You, not God.”

  Keith shook his head. “I’m no substitute for God, baby.”

  Her head started bobbing. “If God has been with me through all of the things I’ve been through, then I’d hate to see how my life would have been if He wasn’t here.”

  He put her hand in his. “Sometimes God has to allow us to go through the storm so that we can appreciate the blessings on the other side.”

  She turned and glared out the window, still holding onto Keith’s hand. Rain beat against her window, gloomy clouds had covered the sun. Darkness had settled. She could barely see where they were going. They should put more lights on highways. Or maybe she needed more light in her. Needed to see her way through.

  ***

  When they reached the house Cynda pulled Keith into the bedroom.

  “What you got on your mind, woman?” he asked.

  She closed the door and sat him down on the edge of the bed. Bending down, she kissed him. Then she began unbuttoning his shirt.

  “What’s gotten into you?” Keith asked her.

  “I’m doing what you said. I’m loving you. Now just sit back and receive it.”

  This wasn’t the kind of love he was referring to, but he wasn’t about to turn it down. Smiling, Keith helped his wife undress. They mingled together as God intended, and as they were swept into a vortex of passion, Keith blurted out, “I love you. Oh God, I love you, girl.”

  He saw her tears, then heard the pain in her voice as she declared, “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  Those words should have brought him great joy, but they weren’t the ones he longed to hear; The words that he knew were locked in her heart. And the pain he heard in her voice as she declared him to be her good thing let him know that she was pulling away from him again. Help me, Lord. I can’t survive without her.

  ***

  Pastor Paul O. Mitchell was scheduled to preach the second night of the revival. The news of the fights that broke out after Isaac preached the night before spread across the city. Isaac prayed that Pastor Paul would not back out. Tonight dignitaries and pastors from all over the city lined the front row of the pews and the pulpit area. The individuals this revival was meant to reach were able to sit anywhere they wanted, just as long as they didn’t come near those reserved important people seats.

  Pastor Paul arrived during praise and worship, Isaac let out a sigh of relief.

  Once Pastor Paul was introduced, he opened his Bible and preached out of Matthew 7:15-27. His text also came out of Mark 7:1-15, and finally he read Matthew 12:33:

  “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit.”

  “In other words,” Pastor Paul admonished the onlookers, “either get all the way in, or get out. Either be hot or cold. But don’t play games. Religious people are lukewarm. That’s why Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites.”

  Isaac squirmed in his seat. Keith called him a hypocrite yesterday.

  Pastor Paul continued. “See, when you really get a word from God, it will deal with your devils. And the real devil we have to fight today is that demon of religion – where people think they can go to church two days a week, but still treat others any kind of way.

  “That’s why I came tonight. The Lord told me to talk to the people who don’t understand why their actions of wrong doing still exist, even though they faithfully attend church.” Pointedly scanning the room he continued. “My brothers and sisters, going to church won’t save you. It is the word of God that will deliver you – because the word goes where the defilement is.

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of seeing the so-called saints of God speak in tongues, dance, and shout, and then curse their brother or sister out. Always judging people for not being the way you think they should be.”

  Isaac squirmed in his seat a little more. He looked over at some of the other pastors and saw their eyes were downcast and they had a little squirm going on also. Strangely though, the congregation seemed to cheer on Pastor Paul, screaming, “Preach,” or “You know you’re telling the truth.”

  Looking directly at the pastors, Pastor Paul said, “You don’t have to amen me. But I tell you this, God is so tired of what he sees in the church that he’s about to go and pull his generals out of crack houses. He’s about to set some prostitutes free.”

  God had pulled Isaac out of a prison cell and anointed him to preach. So he was familiar with God using the uncommon. He looked to heaven and asked, have I misjudged this thing, Lord? Is Cynda…

  Before Isaac could finish his silent communication with the Lord, Pastor Paul’s powerful voice boomed, “There is only one judge who is able to save and destroy. Who are you that judges another? If you truly understood the revelation of love, you wouldn’t judge each other, you’d be there to help pull a fallen soldier up.

  “James 1:26 says, if any man seems to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. In other words,” Pastor Paul told them, “this man is a hypocrite.”

  As Pastor Paul closed down his message and made an altar call, the aisle became flooded. Isaac’s altar call the night before had been empty. But tonight, so many of the people he’d prayed for came forth. Even Charlie Dupree stood at the altar with tears staining his face.

  Isaac felt compelled to step down from the pulpit area and bow down at the altar and ask God for forgiveness. Here he was a man of God, with a hard head and a hard heart. But he couldn’t let go of his pride. He couldn’t let everyone know that he was in need of prayer himself. After all, this was his revival. So when service was over, he shook Pastor Paul’s hand and thanked him for delivering the word, then he went home and lay on his bedroom floor and wept.

  Nina bowed down on the opposite side of the bedroom and prayed. Isaac crawled over to her and buried his head at the base of her neck. He clung to her.

  “That was God speaking tonight, Nina. And it was loud and clear – I’m a hypocrite,” Isaac wept.

  She gently stroked his back. “Cynda is a prostitute. All she’s doing is messing Keith’s life up. He could have had a peaceful life with Janet – but what does he do? He marries a whore.”

  Rubbing her husband’s wavy hair, Nina asked, “Baby, what do you think of Ebony?”

  He lifted his head. “I see where you’re going, and you can stop right there. Ebony is nothing like Cynda.”

  “Ebony was on drugs, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  �
�And she was prostituting herself to get those drugs.”

  He held up a hand. “But Ebony is just a kid. She got caught up in a world that took advantage of her.”

  “So did Cynda, baby. They are no different. I wanted to stay angry with Cynda myself, but she deserves the same mercy and forgiveness that we prayed God would give Ebony.”

  He plopped his head back into her lap. “I don’t want to forgive her, Nina. She had me arrested. She kept my child from me.”

  Still stroking his back she gently told him, “You have to let it go, baby. You didn’t do right by her either.”

  He lifted his head and looked Nina in the eye. “You don’t believe that mess about me selling her into prostitution do you?”

  “Back then, you were capable of anything. Ask God to let you see it the way she sees it.”

  His head flopped back down. “That’s just it. I don’t feel like God wants to hear from me anymore.”

  “Isaac, have you forgotten who God is?” He shook his head.

  “Then don’t you think God knew you would be at this crossroad when he called you to preach? Just as He knew that Peter would deny Jesus, but He also knew that when Peter was restored back to God, he would lead a revival that would shake a nation. Keep the faith, baby.”

  30

  At three in the morning, Cynda eased out of bed. She quietly opened and closed drawers, pulling out clothes and stuffing them in her bag. When she was finished, she tipped toed back over to the bed. Sniffling, she leaned over and planted a kiss on Keith’s mouth.

  She whispered, “I love you, baby.”

  He reached for her. “What are you doing out of bed?”

  “I’m just straightening up a few things. I’ll be back to bed in a minute,” she told him, then opened the bedroom door and walked out.

  Once out of the house, she let the tears flow freely. Looking back on the house where she’d finally learned to love, she ached from wanting to die, or at least turn into a pillar of salt before she could go one more painful step. But it didn’t happen. She was forced to endure this pain as she’d endure all the rest of the hurt that had come her way.