Project Lazarus (12 page)

Sheer fright struck them.  There was no one to save them.  The subdivision, themselves, their neighbors would be left to fend for themselves.

They exchanged unspoken words and began crawling again.

It would be a long night.

Gilroy and Ida Chuttle found themselves in the midst of a hurricane.  Their boys Ivan and Gilbert witnessed a strange event out in the woods of Cotter, one they didn’t want to tell their parents.  Mrs. Chuttle couldn’t deny the truth.  Her own father Joe, resurrected from the dead stood before her in the hallway of her very once safe home.

Ivan and Gilbert had kept Grandpa Joe entertained while they revived their faint mother from the floor.

When the boys were toddlers, their real father walked out on the family.  Ida Chuttle refused to ever say his name in front of the boys.  As far as Ivan and Gilbert knew, their father was dead and Gilroy Chuttle was their biological father.  She preferred it that way.  Their real father deserted his family for another woman and another life.  It was a bad reality show except it was her reality.  The very thing the entertainment industry sold Americans for years to dumb them down happened to her but it was her life.  She thanked God every night for Gilroy.

The desertion of her husband left her isolated by the town of Cotter.  She was the outcast, not him and his mistress.  She was the one left behind to pick up the pieces.  She couldn’t move away, she didn’t have the money and she worked at the local café as a waitress to make ends meet.  Things were tough for the Chuttle’s but tough luck, right?

She often went to bed wondering why children were no longer viewed as a responsibility.  How could fathers abandon them so easily?  Monetary comfort wasn’t really even the issue, although her ex-husband managed to provide none.  It was a fact, as any young man in this country, the boys needed to grow up with a father figure.  Her former husband and his wealthy girlfriend didn’t much care for morals or doing the right thing or bettering society.  But yet, hadn’t we all been taught that.  Watch a little TV, a movie, listen to some music lyrics and you can convince yourself it’s okay to take what you want any way you want and any way you can.  You can lie, steal, cheat, claw, climb, sell your soul and eat it for breakfast, after all, you’re entitled.  Seize the day. 

Someone always pays.  Mrs. Chuttle paid dearly.  Her boys paid too.  But she was intent on bettering them.  Giving them the best lives possible.  She made them read the Bible, attend church, even though she didn’t believe in organized religion.  She encouraged them to read motivational books by Napoleon Hill.  She told them anything was possible even though she no longer believed that herself.

She needed a miracle for a long time.  When Gilroy Chuttle entered their lives, it was a Godsend.  She prayed for her new husband.  She prayed to the God that answered her.

She thought she had no right to ask God for anything else.  But he gave her a gift anyways.  Who says God doesn’t listen anymore?

She had one hour with her beloved father Joe and she didn’t care how or why he was there. When the boys tried to tell her they were deaf in one ear each, she assumed they were suffering from delirium or shock.  Maybe the tribulation had been too much.  What was she witnessing?  A miracle?  A curse?  Had she finally gone off the deep end?

Ida sat on the couch beside her father Joe.

“Dad, I’ve been waiting so long to see you,” she told him.

“Deidra, my darling daughter, I’m so glad to see you too.”

“Did you see the boys Dad?”

“They look great honey.  You’re doing a fine job.  I’m so sorry about what happened with Frank.”

She silenced him and moved in closer, wanting to be closer to her father, “Dad, I tell them he’s dead.”

“Well, he’s not.  I can see him and his wicked ways from where I’m at.”

“Where’s that dad?  Where are you?”

He smiled.

“Heaven.  You’re in heaven aren’t you?  Did I go there too?”

“No, dear and I’m not there anymore.  I’ve come back to the living.  I don’t know how or why.  I was hoping you could tell me.”

“I don’t know dad,” she looked at him puzzled.

“I love you Ida and I would do anything for you but you can understand I want to go back to heaven.”

“Yes, I suppose.  But I need your help down here Dad.  With the boys, Ivan and Gilbert.  They need you.  You have to stay here and help me.  Something has happened to them Dad.”

“I need to go back,” he told her, his blue eyes shining against his white hair.

“What’s it like Dad?”

“Keep praying and believing in God.  I always did.  You want to be there with me one day honey.”

“Yes, I want to see you again.  But you’re here now.  Why don’t you stay?”

“My soul, my heart wants to be with him, with God.”

Ida stared at him in amazement.  This conversation was only her imagination she thought but yet she knew it would stay with her long after it was over.

“You’ve got to go on Ida.  You and the boys have Gilroy now.  Go on. Fight.  Life is difficult but there are rewards for the faithful.  There is no life for the non-believer.  Vengeance is not yours to have.  It is his.  All wrongs are righted.  Forgive for yourself honey.  Forgive for your own salvation.  I have seen the wrongs in this world and there are many.  But the hope is in the people who stand for what is right.  You’ve done right by God.  You’ve stood by your boys.  Don’t be bitter.  Forgive.”

“I will Dad,” she promised.               

“Can you help me get back?  I want to go back to heaven.”

His message to her was over.  Now his eyes fixated only on the ceiling, upward and he refused to look away.

“I want to go back.  Please can you help me?”

An upset Ida was a lethal combination of confusion and distraught feelings by the time the police walked through the doors.

The two Chuttle boys tried to comfort their mother.  They knew when the man in the woods told them he was from hell that was the truth.  They also knew Grandpa Joe was from heaven.  Wise beyond their years, they knew Grandpa Joe didn’t belong with them.

They kissed him on the cheek.  He rambled on about them.  About heaven.  About Ida.  Then heaven again.  He always went back to heaven.  He wanted to go back to heaven.  He repeated these things time and time again.

Grandpa Joe knew what was waiting for the living.

“Stay away,” he warned his daughter, as they shackled him.

“Dad,” she pleaded, “Don’t take him,” she hit the officer in the arm.

“Let go of him,” her boys, took their mother aside and let the police officers take Grandpa Joe who was screaming now, “Get me away from those demons.  They’re from hell.  They’ve come to kill the living.”

“What’s he talking about?” Ida asked the officer.

“Calm down mam,” he told her, “It’ll be okay.  We’re going to take him somewhere safe.”

“You’re not going to hurt him?”

“No Mom, they’re the good guys,” Ivan assured his mother.

“What then?  What’s going on?  How did my father get back here?  Am I going crazy?”

“You haven’t been listening to your radio mam,” the officer asked.

“No.”

“There’s been an incident in Cotter.  All of the dead have been raised.  An experiment gone wrong.”

“What?  Who would do that?  Are you people crazy?”

“It’s under control now mam,” the officer assured her, “you need to stay home with your boys.  Don’t go outside.”

Ivan and Gilbert gave each other a knowing glance.

Gilroy Chuttle emerged from the kitchen having watched the surreal scene and comforted his wife and sons.

Sherriff Traves entered the home.

Grandpa Joe was outside being led onto the bus, still asking about heaven, like many of the others.

“Sherriff,” Ida announced, recognizing the face from the newspapers.

She never met the man before her until today.

“Sherriff Traves,” Mr. Chuttle announced.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Chuttle.  I’m the Sherriff of Cotter.”

“Yes, I know,” Mrs. Chuttle told him.

Ivan and Gilbert squirmed.  What was the Sherriff doing at their home?  This wasn’t good.

“I know this must be very upsetting for you Mrs. Chuttle.  There’s quite a lot going on in Cotter right now.”

“Yes, it appears so,” she agreed, frustrated and angry.

“We’d like to talk to your boys.  Ivan and Gilbert.”

“First you take my father.  No.  What do you want with my sons,” she said, instinctively grabbing her sons, like some defensive bears watching over her baby cubs.

Gilroy Chuttle stood in between the Sherriff and the boys, “No,” he exclaimed.

“Boys,” Sherriff Traves asked more than announced.

“Ivan…Gilbert…” their mother questioned.

“There are some men outside in the van that would like to ask you some questions about what you saw in the woods,” Sherriff Traves explained.

“Don’t know,” Ivan retorted.

“Seems they have you on surveillance tape.  Video tape.  You boys were in the woods right?”

The boys looked at each other and conceded to the Sherriff with a nod.

“I’m sorry Mr. and Mrs. Chuttle it’s a matter of national security.  Your sons may be able to help us.  They’re the only living witnesses to the incident, the raising of the dead man.  You boys probably lost your hearing?”

“That’s what they told me.  One in each ear.  How did you know that?” Mrs. Chuttle asked the Sherriff.

“Doesn’t matter.  But they have to do the right thing Mrs. Chuttle.”

She pleaded with her sons, “Please tell me you boys didn’t sneak out for another adventure in the woods.”

“We’re sorry mom.  Really we’re sorry,” Gilbert told her.

“Will they be safe Sherriff Traves?”

“Safer with me than on their own.”

“I don’t know about this Sherriff,” Gilroy Chuttle pleaded.

Sherriff Traves gave the stand in father a look that Gilroy interpreted as a matter of life or death.  Silently, he conceded.

Ida Chuttle lifted Ivan’s chin, kissed both boys on the cheek, “You remember your mama always told you boys to be honest and good in your lives.  You go help the Sherriff.”