FOLLOWED
The concert was fantastic. The atmosphere was estrogen charged. The artist, whose career I’ve followed since I was an adolescent, was my Idol, and every other females apparently. I swayed to the lyrics and floated in my personal heaven. Something was bothering me though. I could feel bur holes being drilled into the back of my head. Turning around I caught sight of Him. There He was again. It seems everywhere I go there He is, watching me, with just a hint of a tear on His lower eye lid. Making it obvious I was ignoring Him I returned my attention to center stage. Eventually I twisted around nonchalantly, and He was gone, someone else was in His seat.
I hurried to the safety of my car in the highly populated parking lot after the performance to avoid running into Him again, though lately He has been popping up a lot. At first I hardly noticed Him, but the more I ran into Him the more I realized He was following me. Yes, I know I sound paranoid. He has never approached me or attempted to contact me in any form but I’m sure He’s tailing me. I can’t possibly have that much in common with a stranger.
A car on my left hand side cut me off from my exit. Words of profanity escaped my lips that would tinge the cheeks of a wizened sailor, phrases that called on a high deity to condemn the vehicles occupants. There He was again, in the passenger seat, looking me right in the eye. Accelerating so I could show him the one finger salute I found an empty passenger seat. The driver gave me a apathetic look. I slowed down and pulled up behind to see if anyone sat up in the passenger‘s side, maybe he dropped something on the floor board? Nobody. I tried to memorize the license plate number.
At home my dog met me at the door apprehensively. I didn’t always give him the best greetings when I was tired or out of sorts, he had to test the waters continuously before approaching me. Tonight he thought better about getting too close and slinked away to his doggy bed in the kitchen where he felt safer.
The next day at work, (yes, I stayed up too late on a work night, I’m not real responsible), I received a call from my mother wanting me to take her to church on Sunday, Mother’s Day. Though she lives just down the street it’s been weeks since I’ve seen her. She knew I needed at least 48 hour notice for any change in my schedule. I stopped going to church when I left home, years ago, so it wasn’t hard to come up with an excuse to not take her. I have my own life and can’t always be bothered with her errands or needs. Her nursing home provided transportation or she could call MITS. (mobility impaired transportation system). I wanted my Sunday’s to be free of commitments. That was my time to refresh in the pool with a nice drink and a good no strings pulled romance novel, with steamy love scenes. I also had to be available for my “friend”. Sometimes his wife, (also a friend of mine, it’s not my fault her husband could be enticed by eye candy,) did things with her church group in the afternoons and he was able to sneak over to my place to share the pool, have a nice drink and make our own steamy love scenes! Why waste a Sunday in a church pew when it could be spent in bed doing gymnastics. His wife shared a fear with me once that she felt hubby was roaming and I put her off course by suggesting she keep a watchful eye over another shared comrade. This advice worked and ruined their friendship, keeping me in the clear and in the know about our mutual hubby‘s activities.
Before I placed the receiver in it’s cradle I noticed the UPS man delivering a package to the receptionist. He turned in my direction to give me the eye causing a shudder to ripple my spine, I recognized Him immediately. Dropping the receiver to the floor, creating some attention, I chased Him to the elevator and tapped Him on the shoulder. I was going to find out who the hell He was! The man that turned back to meet my eyes was not the same UPS man. Not at all. I looked up and down the hallway. Where did He go? I stuttered out an explanation that I was expecting a delivery and stumbled back to my work station amid curious glances and whispers. This man keeps showing up and getting away. He needs to leave me alone.
After lunch I went to the restroom to freshen up and discovered the office’s newlywed left her rings at the sink. Lovely. Expensive. Antique. Doesn’t she know there are thieves here? Even housecleaning, who have back ground checks done, can slip things like this away. Well, losers-weepers. I snuck the golden bejeweled items into my bra, knowing full well I could never wear them to work and must be careful who sees me with them. Of course I could always remount the gems. On the street out side my window He passed by, giving me the customary teary eyed look. This man was incredible. He was definitely stalking me and with perfect timing. He always sparked feelings of guilt in me, of being discovered. I had to stop him before any of my secrets were made public. I was going to the police, immediately if not sooner and file a complaint. A restraining order. Request a body guard. Something.
At the police station I waited for someone to come to the main desk incased behind a bullet prove window. Even police officers need protection. When an officer entered from the rear door, I recounted my whole story. Someone was following me and had been for weeks. He was crafty and dangerous because he appeared harmless, and I wanted it stopped.
The officer listened with trained patience and started writing on a slip of paper. “We can’t help you here, but go to this place tomorrow morning. There is a group that has encountered this man before.” He informed me, with a trace of a foreign accent I couldn’t place. He wasn’t from around here originally.
“Really? They can help?”
“Yes, ma’am, I know they can.”
Thanking him I went outside before I read the information he’d written. Just a minute. I knew this address. This was a joke! He thought I was crazy! (can’t blame him there!) I rushed back to the police desk. Finding a different officer manning the station I demanded to speak with the man I’d spoken to earlier. Officer number two explained to me, as though I was a child, he was the only officer on duty at the desk and he hadn’t spoken to anyone about anything in an hour. I practically called him a liar and persisted in my demands to see the other officer. I was threatened with arrest before I decided to call it quits and make a rapid departure.
It seems I’m going to have to take the law into my own inept hands. I was considering confronting this man and luring him to some remote location to dispose of Him, His body and His intrusions into my life. I’ve read enough murder mysteries I started formulating all sorts of plausible scenarios. The problem was His slipperiness. If I could commit some immoral activity, (yea, that will be hard!) which seemed to be His cue to appear, and catch Him spying on me, He’d be dead in seconds.
A small voice in my head encouraged me to stay home the following morning but a louder more insistent voice won. I would check out the address the disappearing officer gave me. I showered, dressed and dawdled over breakfast with my dog laying timidly under the table. I still made it in time much to my dismay.
My feet defied my neurological commands, it was though I suffered some sort of paralysis. This place scared me. The people entering it with joyful faces repelled me. I had nothing in common with these folks. They and I traveled different roads, my road had more options and exits. I recognized some. What in the world were they doing here?
There was my friend and her husband, he gave me a surprised look, then a conspiratorial wink. Suddenly I felt dirty, exposed, naked. There was my mom in her wheel chair, up ahead. She couldn’t see me but I could see her with her head bowed and lips moving silently. It brought back strong recollections of my youth catching her with her head bent over her bible several times daily. There was the mysterious police officer, up in the choir, smiling from ear to ear. No, wait a minute, it’s just a look a like.
Oh, my gosh, there He was! Up on the stage behind the speaker, between two other guys; one of whom seemed to be harassing Him while the other guy was pleading with Him about something. The speaker, a minister, spoke from the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy on the ten commandments. I read them once before they were removed from public places. As the sermon progressed I felt myself shrinking, surely all eyes were on me. I’ve broken everyone of the commandments he listed. Idolatry, blasphemy , dishonoring my mother, adultery, false witness against an innocent friend, murder, theft, coveting. What was left? I managed to fit all those vices into just a few days. I wanted to slink out, unobserved like a snake. Impossible. I mentally visualized myself in sack cloth, with ashes floating from my brown tresses to my shoulders while open wounds erupted on my skin.
After the sermon He kept staring at me from high on the wall behind the pulpit, His arms stretched out, inviting me to come while music wafted through the auditorium. My feet, weighed in cement, started forward. My mother saw me. My friend saw me. Her husband saw me and snickered. The music director, conducting “Whiter Than Snow”, turned to smile at me, it was the police officer again, he sure was an illusive son of a ….female dog.
I offered my life up at the cross giving people reason to come greet me, to welcome me to the family. My clothes mercifully returned to the Dillard’s outfit I purchased last week, my hair impeccable. The oozing sores on my arms sealed shut, my skin was blemish-less once again!
My mom who had wheeled up beside me was crying, confessing she had prayed for this day for years. She had more to cry about than she knew. I was going to take her home to live with me. Since she had prayed me into this building, she was going to have to suffer the consequences! My friend shook my hand and her husband whispered in my ear that he’d see me latter. My response was, “Not again in this life time!” (and maybe not in the next!) He pulled his hand back in shock and embracing his wife went home. I stunned myself by praying for healing in their marriage!
At home my dog crept towards me with his usual insecurity, ears flat, tail motionless. Suddenly he perked up and leapt into my arms. His uncanny dog sense told him I was not the same person I was when I left that morning. I was a new creature. Animals can’t be fooled! His mistress had been transformed.
I called Mrs. Newlywed and explained to her I’d found some rings in the ladies room at work the other day and forgot I had them,(yea, right) was it possible they were hers? She broke down crying with relief explaining they had belonged to her husband’s grandmother. I told her I’d bring them to work first thing in the morning, good as new and shiny clean. Boy, that felt nice. I wasn’t going to admit to stealing them, hey, I’m saved now but not stupid. I only have one reputation, I don’t want to screw it up completely.
Up above in a far, far away galaxy that was as close as the air we breathe, the police officer, now wearing his true uniform of feathery wings, sat with Him and looked down on creation and one more lost sheep brought home to the fold while a choir sang in the background.
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Duet. 5
Isaiah 1:18
Math. 7:13
Mark 12:28-34
Acts 17:27-28
Rom. 8:10
2 Cor. 5:17-19
Eph. 4:28-29
1Thes. 5:19
