The Left Behind Collection: All 12 Books (53 page)

“Just this,” Buck said, showing him the cover and trying to replace it in the bookshelf. But Bruce reached for it. “It’s a couple of years old,” Buck added.

“About a month after we started coming here,” Rayford said.

Bruce flipped right to the picture of his family, stood studying it for several seconds, and said, “You’re in here, Rayford?”

“Yes,” Rayford said simply, and Buck noticed him trying to get Chloe to move into the office.

Bruce turned to the Steele picture and nodded, smiling. He brought the directory back into the office with him, tucked it under his Bible and notebook, and opened the meeting in prayer.

Bruce started a little emotionally, but he soon warmed to his topic. He was flipping from Revelation to Ezekiel and Daniel and back again, comparing the prophetic passages to what was happening in New York and the rest of the world.

“Any of you hear the news about the two witnesses in Jerusalem today?”

Buck shook his head, and Rayford did the same. Chloe did not respond. She was not taking notes either or asking any questions. “A reporter said that a little band of a half dozen thugs tried to charge the two, but they all wound up burned to death.”

“Burned?” Buck said.

“No one knew where the fire came from,” Bruce said. “But we know, don’t we?”

“Do we?”

“Look at Revelation 11. The angel tells the apostle John, ‘“And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.’”

“They breathed fire on them like dragons?”

“It’s right here in the book,” Bruce said.

“I’d like to see that on CNN,” Buck said.

“Keep watching,” Bruce said. “We’ll see more than that.”

Rayford wondered if he would ever get used to the things God was revealing to him. He could hardly fathom how far he’d come, how much he had accepted in less than a month. There was something about the dramatic invasion of God into humankind and into himself specifically that had changed the way he thought. From being a man who had to have everything documented, he suddenly found himself believing without question the most ludicrous news accounts, as long as they were corroborated by Scripture. And the opposite was also true: He believed everything in the Bible. Sooner or later the news would carry the same story.

Bruce turned to Buck. “How did your day go?” To Rayford, it seemed like an inside question.

“More to talk about than I can get into here,” Buck said.

“No kidding,” Chloe snapped. It was the first thing she had said.

Buck glanced at her and said, “I’ll debrief you tomorrow, Bruce, and then we can talk about it here tomorrow night.”

“Oh, let’s talk about it now,” Chloe said. “We’re all friends here.”

Rayford wished he could shush his own daughter, but she was an adult. If she wanted to press an issue, regardless of how she came across, that was her prerogative.

“You don’t even know where I was today,” Buck told her, clearly puzzled.

“But I know who you were with.”

Rayford saw the glance Buck shot at Bruce, but he didn’t understand it. Obviously, something had transpired between the two of them that wasn’t public knowledge yet. Could he have told Chloe that Buck met with Carpathia?

“Did you—?” Bruce shook his head.

“I don’t think you know, Chloe,” Buck said. “Let me discuss it with Bruce tomorrow, and I’ll bring it up for prayer in our meeting tomorrow night.”

“Yeah, sure,” Chloe said. “But I have a question and a prayer request for tonight.”

Bruce looked at his watch. “OK, shoot.”

“I’m wondering what you think about dating relationships during this time.”

“You’re the second person who’s asked me that today,” Bruce said. “We must be lonely people.” Chloe snorted, then scowled at Buck.

She must assume it was Buck who asked Bruce that earlier,
Rayford thought.

“Let me make that a topic for one of our sessions,” Bruce said.

“How about the next one?” Chloe pressed.

“All right. We can discuss it tomorrow night.”

“And can you add to it what the rules are for morality for new believers?” Chloe said.

“Excuse me?”

“Talk about how we’re supposed to live, now that we call ourselves followers of Christ. You know, like morals and sex and all of that.”

Buck winced. Chloe didn’t sound like herself. “All right,” Bruce said. “We can cover that. But I don’t think it’ll come as any great shock to you to know that the rules that applied before the Rapture still apply. I mean, this could be a short lesson. We’re called to purity, and I’m sure it won’t surprise you—”

“It might not be so obvious to all of us,” Chloe said.

“We’ll deal with it tomorrow night then,” Bruce said. “Anything else for right now?”

Before anyone said anything or even offered closing prayer requests, Chloe said, “Nope. See you tomorrow night then.” And she left.

The three men prayed, and the meeting ended awkwardly, none of them wanting to talk, as Nicolae Carpathia had put it, about the elephant in the room.

Buck arrived home frustrated. He was not used to being unable to fix something, and most maddening, he didn’t even know what was wrong. He changed out of his traveling clothes and into hiking boots, khakis, denim shirt, and leather jacket. He phoned the Steeles. Rayford answered but after a few minutes came back to the phone to say that Chloe was unavailable. Buck was only guessing, but it sounded as if Rayford was as frustrated with her as he was.

“Rayford, is she standing right there?”

“That’s correct.”

“Do you have any idea what her problem is?”

“Not totally.”

“I want to get to the bottom of it,” Buck said.

“I concur with that.”

“I mean tonight.”

“Affirmative. Absolutely. You can try her again tomorrow.”

“Rayford, are you telling me it’s all right for me to come there right now?”

“Yes, you’re right. I can’t promise she’ll be here, but try again tomorrow.”

“So if I came there right now, I would not be offending you.”

“Not at all. We’ll expect your call tomorrow then.”

“I’m on my way.”

“OK, Buck. Talk to you then.”

Rayford didn’t like deceiving Chloe. It was almost like lying. But he had enjoyed the coded banter with Buck. He remembered a little tiff he’d had when dating Irene years before. She was very upset with him over something and told him she didn’t want him to call her until he heard from her, and she stormed off.

He hadn’t known what to do, but his mother gave him some advice. “You go to her right now, find her, and put the ball in her court. She can walk away from you once, but if she sends you away when you’re coming after her, then you’ll know she’s serious. She may not know her own mind, but down deep, if I know women, I know she’d rather you pursue her than let her run.”

And so, in a way, he had encouraged Buck’s instinct to do the same with Chloe. He knew they weren’t an item yet, but he thought they both wanted it that way. He had no idea what this other woman in Buck’s life was all about, but he was sure that if Buck forced the issue, Chloe would confront him about her and find out. If Buck was living with someone, that was a problem for Rayford and Bruce as well as for Chloe. But Chloe’s evidence seemed thin at best.

“So he’s going to try to call me tomorrow?” Chloe said.

“That’s what I told him.”

“How did he react?”

“He was just clarifying.”

“You sounded pretty clear.”

“I tried to be.”

“I’m going to bed,” she said.

“Why don’t we talk awhile first?”

“I’m tired, Dad. And I’m talked out.” She moved toward the stairs.

Rayford stalled her. “So, will you take his call tomorrow, you think?”

“I doubt it. I want to see how he reacts to Bruce’s teaching tomorrow night.”

“How do you think he’ll react?”

“Dad! How would I know? All I know is what I saw this morning. Now let me go to bed.”

“I just want to hear you out on this, hon. Talk to me.”

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Well, would you stay up and talk to me if I talked about me and my job situation instead of you and Buck?”

“Don’t put me and Buck in the same sentence, Dad. And no, unless you’re getting fired or switching jobs or something, I’d really rather do it another time.”

Rayford knew he could snag her attention with what had happened to him that day, from the note from Hattie to the bogus harassment charge to the meeting with Earl Halliday. But he was more in a mood to talk about all that than she was. “Want to help me tidy up the kitchen?”

“Daddy, the kitchen is spotless. Anything you need done around here I’ll do tomorrow, all right?”

“Coffee timer set for the morning?”

“Programmed since the beginning of time, Dad. What’s with you?”

“I’m just feeling a little lonely. Not ready to turn in yet.”

“If you need me to stay up with you I will, Dad. But why don’t you just watch some TV and relax?”

Rayford couldn’t delay her any longer. “I’ll do that,” he said. “I’ll be right down here in the living room with the TV on, OK?”

She gave him a funny look and matched his tone. “And I’ll be right up in my room at the top of the stairs with my light off, OK?”

He nodded.

She shook her head. “Now that we have both reported in and we know where the other will be and what we’ll be doing, am I excused?”

“You’re excused.”

Rayford waited until Chloe started up the stairs to turn on the front porch light. Buck knew the address and the general area, as he had been there once before.

The news was ending and only talk shows coming on, but Rayford didn’t care. He was sitting there only as a diversion anyway. He glanced through the curtains, looking for Buck’s car. “Dad?” Chloe called down. “Could you turn that down a little? Or watch in your room?”

“I’ll turn it down,” he said, as headlights briefly flooded the living room and came up the drive. Before he adjusted the volume, he hurried to the door and intercepted Buck before he rang the bell. “I’m going upstairs to bed,” he whispered. “Give me a second and then ring the bell. I’ll be in the shower, and she’ll have to answer it.”