LLOYD, PAUL R. (23 page)

Micah smiled and turned his face
back into the cell phone. “Make it three hundred million, one of our homes with
the furnishings, and her choice of any art or other collectables we accumulate
during our marriage.” Micah hung up.

Barbara stirred her iced tea. “You
don’t have that much money, do you? I mean, you like own a piece of something
big, right? Something big enough to have a bazillion investors, right?”

“My share adds up to several billion.
I receive dividend checks quarterly and salary checks bi-weekly. It’s direct
deposited. Ashford is always after me to spend more money, but I’m happy so it
sits in the bank.”

“Sits in the bank?” Barbara wiped
her lips with a napkin.

“Yeah, in Phoenix.” Micah picked up
the sports section of the paper. “Cubs won. Sox lost. I never understood why
Chicagoans don’t support both teams instead of one or the other. They don’t
play in the same league.”

“So you have like what, six figures,
floating around you don’t know what to do with?”

“The quarterly dividend checks are
higher than that. The bank invests it for me. It’s not earning savings account
type interest.”

“So can we play with some of your
money sometime?”

“Sure. You want some now? We are on
the Magnificent Mile. Or we could head over to Wrigley?”

“We just dropped a couple thousand
each on clothes, Micah.”

“Do you have your checking account
information with you?”

“Yeah, my new checkbook just
arrived in the mail. You need some cash?”

“No, darling. I can’t have my
fiancée worried about cash flow. Give me your checkbook.”

“I trust you, but what are you up
to?” Barbara pulled her checkbook out of her purse and handed it to Micah.

Micah pulled his cell phone from
his pocket and punched a number in his address book. “Margaret, would you
arrange for a transfer from my personal account into the checking account
number I’m about to give you?” Micah read off the account number. “Ten million
should do it.”

“I have to go to the bathroom.”
Barbara rushed away.

After he hung up, Micah called four-one-one
to obtain Pastor Fromritz’s phone number and called him to arrange an
appointment for later that afternoon. He sipped iced tea while Barbara made her
way back to their table.

Barbara kissed Micah and asked,
“Did you really transfer money into my checking account?”

“As it turns out, you have tax
issues with large gifts. Ashford insisted we wait until after the wedding. I
insisted he make the deposit and have the financial types work out the taxes.
If you’re concerned about saving the taxes, I can call Ashford back. You’ll
have a pretty big tax bill I’m afraid.”

“I don’t want your money, Micah. I
want you, like I said. If you ever don’t want me, no amount of money will make
me stay.”

“Looks like you’re stuck with
both.”

“As long as I have you, darling.”
Barbara leaned over and kissed Micah on the lips.

“We have to leave
soon. I made an appointment with Fromritz.

***

“As soon as possible.” Micah
squeezed Barbara’s hand.

“And you want to be married in the
church here?” Pastor Fromritz smiled, leaned back in his chair in his
Naperville church office, and placed his hands behind his head.

Barbara sat forward in her chair
across the desk form Pastor Fromritz. She parked an elbow on the arm rest. “Yes.”

Pastor Fromritz raised an eyebrow. “In
a Christian ceremony?”

Barbara ran a finger through her
hair. Micah nodded.

“Are you both Christians?” Pastor
Fromritz asked.

“Well, no.” Barbara placed her
hands on her lap.

“I might have been baptized once,”
said Micah.

“But you haven’t been to church
since?” Pastor Fromritz leaned forward. He folded his hands on the desk.

“Maybe. I don’t remember. Certainly
not since I was a kid.”

“And Barbara, what about you?”

“No one has ever accused me of
being a Christian.”

“I’m authorized by the state of
Illinois as a minister to perform a secular ceremony. It doesn’t have to be
religious if you’re not believers. Of course, I would be more than happy to
welcome you as new believers if you so choose. I am more concerned about your
salvation than your wedding.”

Micah looked at Barbara then turned
to Pastor Fromritz. “We’re kinda thinking we’re becoming believers, Pastor
Fromritz. What with all the fighting with demons and hags and faeries. And I’m
wearing the armor of God, and dead people are helping me, including Bob.”

Pastor Fromritz put his hands up,
palms out. “Okay, I get it. Put a little spiritual warfare in someone’s life
and all of a sudden they begin thinking about God.”

“Can I be honest with you?” Micah
shifted in his seat.

“Yes, of course.”

“You don’t sound too happy about
having us in here. We want to get married as soon as possible. You’re the only
pastor we know, and we also want to learn more about this God stuff. Yeah, I
guess you’d call us a couple of slackers or sinners or whatever, but honest,
Pastor, we’re scared to death of this Ahlman Brown and Denise Appleby. They are
weird and have powers we’ve never seen before. And they’re killing people. And
they’re trying to kill us. They killed Bob. They have some kind of high
priestess or warlock boss somewhere we haven’t run into yet, so we know it’s
going to get worse before it gets better. We need help and protection from some
very scary people who seem to draw their powers from hell. So do you want to
help us or not?”

“Yes, of course. I wanted to learn
more about you. Sorry if I sounded distant or uninterested. Quite the contrary.
You have to understand our tradition. As I may have mentioned to you both back
in Oak Brook, we’re more intellectually oriented. It’s not that we’re not
spiritual, we are. But we don’t make it a habit of fussing about in spiritual
warfare kinds of things. But I’ve learned a lot in recent times. More than I’d
like to admit. So in a way, I’m new to this spiritual warfare business myself.
But it is real. There’s no doubt about it. It has a solid biblical basis and a
long tradition in the church.”

“So you’ll help us?” Micah leaned
forward in his seat.

“Of course. Let’s take these things
one at a time, shall we? You want to talk about marriage, about learning more
about God, and about defending yourselves in this spiritual warfare you find
yourselves caught up in. Which would you like to discuss first?”

“Marriage.” Barbara grabbed Micah’s
arm.

“Okay. May I ask if you would like
to consider becoming Christians before your marriage or if you would rather not
wait?” Pastor Fromritz folded his hands.

“Bob suggested we wait until after
the quest.” Micah placed his hand over Barbara’s.

“Did you say ‘quest?’” Pastor Fromritz
rubbed his chin.

“Yes. I’m on a quest to learn my
role in life.”

Pastor Fromritz pointed a finger at
Micah. “Bob was right. You should know your part in life before marriage.
Otherwise you might find your role is in conflict with your marriage.”

“But we don’t want to wait a long
time.” Barbara smiled.

Pastor Fromritz shook his head
before responding. “May I make a suggestion? Why don’t you two announce your engagement?
I see Barbara has a ring everyone is sure to notice. Barbara, why don’t you plan
the wedding? Think about where you want to have the reception. Most places in
the Naperville area are booked a year or more in advance so that gives you an
idea for when to set the date. Here at the church, we book up six months in
advance for the popular months. We can work in a wedding in the slower months
on short notice and we sometimes have open dates during the busy season, if you
don’t mind an early morning wedding.”

“Sounds like a long wait to me.”
Micah frowned.

Pastor Fromritz removed his glasses
and rubbed his eyes. “We can always speed things up. You could hold the wedding
on a weekday, for example. Or have a simple, small service. While we are booked
up here for the sanctuary, I don’t perform all the weddings. Many times the
bride or groom has their own pastor do it, especially if either family has a
pastor in it. So I’m often free on short notice to perform the ceremony for
another couple in another location. For example, at another church or in a
hotel banquet room.”

“What do you think, Barbara?” Micah
turned sideways in his chair to face her better.

Barbara brushed back her hair. “I
see no reason why marriage should get in the way of slaying your demons.
Besides, I don’t have much of a family and neither do you, do you? I mean your
parents are dead and you don’t have any siblings, right?”

“No, just me and Ashford Thornby,
but he’s not a relative.”

Barbara smiled. “So we could
arrange a simple wedding on short notice. It could be just my parents, your
friend Ashford, the gang from Bob’s, I mean Peevy’s. Anyone else?”

Micah raised his eyes to the
ceiling. “I would invite the executives from the company. They’d want to attend
to honor Dad’s memory if for no other reason. And I’m friends with some of the
staff. So we’d invite company people or not. They’re in Phoenix. We could hold
a special reception out there for them. Then they won’t have to travel. Or we
could fly your parents out and have the wedding in Phoenix.”

Pastor Fromritz rubbed his hands
together. “Okay, then you two are agreed you’ll announce your engagement now
but set a date on short notice for a small ceremony after Micah completes his
quest.”

“We’re going ahead now, aren’t we?”
Barbara leaned over and kissed Micah.

“We can wait a little while, my
love.”

“Ergh! If you insist.”

“Then it’s settled,” Micah
proclaimed.

“There is one more thing.” Pastor
Fromritz picked up a pencil and pointed it at Micah.

“What?” Micah sat up.

“If you’re going to do things God’s
way, then you need to understand God’s way.” Pastor Fromritz pointed to the
ceiling.

“Ulp! Here it comes.” Barbara sat
up straighter in the chair.

“We can’t do sex?” Micah looked at
Barbara and then at Pastor Fromritz.

Pastor Fromritz smiled. “In a word,
no.”

“Is this because of my quest?”

Pastor Fromritz placed a hand on
the bible on his desk. “With or without a quest, it’s God’s law for unmarried
couples to remain celibate.”

Micah looked at the Pastor’s hand
resting on the bible. “So no marriage until after the quest and no sex until
after the marriage.” Micah looked into Pastor Fromritz’s eyes.  “That about
it?”

“On the purity front, it’ll do for
now.”

“A tough assignment, Pastor.”
Barbara crossed her legs and twisted the strap of her purse.

“Yes, it is. May I make another
suggestion or two?”

“Of course,” Barbara said.

“Why don’t you join us for Sunday service?
You’ll learn more about this God thing as you call it. And you’ll meet some
interesting people who have already made a commitment for Christ. It will be
informative and give you a chance to benefit from prayer and worship.”

Barbara uncrossed her legs and then
crossed them the other way. “I don’t think it’ll make up for no sex, Pastor.
Hate to be the one to break the news.”

Pastor Fromritz chuckled. “I thought
we were finished with that portion of the discussion.”

“Okay. But I don’t know if we’re
ready for prayer and worship.” Barbara held her hands in front of her, palms
toward Pastor Fromritz.

“What time’s the service?” Micah
smiled.

“Nine-thirty in the morning, and I
always begin on time.”

“We’ll be there.” Micah sat back in
his chair and crossed his legs.

“We will?” Barbara asked.

“Can’t hurt. Might help with the
quest. It’s time we finished the thing and set a wedding date, my love.”

Tug MacIntosh didn’t see the leg as
he scooped a bucket of debris with his backhoe, hit reverse and spun around to
face the dump truck. He maneuvered the backhoe up to the side of the dump truck,
lifted the bucket to its full height, moved closer so the bucket hung over the
truck bed, and dumped. The plasterboard, studs and other broken elements of the
burned-out home crashed into the truck, clanging against the metal sides. Tug
backed away, lowered the bucket into the roading position a few inches off the
ground. It was low enough not to block his vision as he maneuvered for another
load.

As he was about to scrape into the
debris pile again, he noticed the leg poking out from under a fallen door. A
crack in the door ran from the doorknob across to the edge with the hinges
still attached.

“Store dummy babe on the front of
Izzy’s truck will look sweet.” Tug didn’t mind talking to himself as he climbed
down from the backhoe. He worked alone most of the day, except for an
occasional comment from one of the truck drivers, and they were the silent
types except for Izzy. Izzy understood heavy equipment.

It may have been the plasterboard
dust covering the leg that fooled Tug into thinking it was plastic, but when he
grabbed it, he let go and backed up a few steps. He tripped over the backhoe’s
wide loader bucket.

Tug sat on the
ground and reached for his cell phone. Before he could dial, he burst into tears.
He buried his head in his arms which he folded over his upraised knees.

***

Izzy sat in his truck with the
oldies station blaring. He reached for a fistful of potato chips. With the
latest issue of
Car and Driver
parked on his lap, he wished the editors
would do a comparo of arti trucks. “Tug, what’s taking so long?”

Tug was not in hearing range which did
not bother Izzy. He peeked out the side window and craned his head to find Tug
on the ground with his head buried on his arms.