Eating the Fruit of Lies

by Sandra Thompson Williams

  David returned to his apartment and listened to his messages. There was a reminder from the dry cleaners, then a message from his sister. She thanked him for being there for her when she needed him most. David used the cordless phone to dial her number, while undressing in his bedroom. It had been a long day, and it appeared that it would be a little longer before David really called it quits.

  “Hey Steph,” he said, sounding real cheerful.

  “Well you must have had a great day,” she said. “You sound like it’s morning instead of evening.”

  “Well, what’s wrong with evening?” he asked.

  “Oh, I don’t know, it’s just that when the day ends, I sometimes feel it’s been wasted. As if I haven’t accomplished very much. You know?” she said.

  “What are you trying to accomplish?” he asked.

  “Are you trying to analyze me?” she said laughing. “I’m your sister not your client.”

  “No, I’m just curious,” he insisted.

  “Well, I just want to get my life back on track. I feel like, like, I don’t know what I feel,” she said.

  David was trained in detecting depression. He not only heard it in her voice, he felt it in his spirit. He could feel anger swelling inside of him. He wasn’t angry at his sister. He was angry at his parents. He felt powerless but did his best to encourage her to look on the bright side of everything. He almost cried as he spoke with her. Deep in his heart, he knew he didn’t see much brightness anywhere he looked.

  David was very disturbed when he fell asleep that night. He awakened to the sound of a drum beat. He looked around in the darkness, then drifted off again. The faint sound of a drum was steady and seemed to grow louder and closer. He looked in the distance and saw a group of people marching in a straight line. They were headed to the top of a hill. From where he stood peering, he could see that there were children in the front of the line.

  David could see smoke escaping from the mountain, then all of a sudden he saw flames. The children marching seemed to be unaware of the fiery mountain. They were headed directly there. The next thing David saw made him sick to his stomach. An adult ran forward and watched with little emotion as the children passed through the fire. The children went in one by one. The line seemed to be unending. There were screams and then silence. The next person about to go through looked somewhat familiar. He couldn’t see the face but there was something about the way she walked.

  “Oh no!” he screamed. He reached out to her.

  There was a loud thud as David hit the floor. His sheet and covers were tangled. He was weeping. He looked at the bedroom clock and saw that it was 5:03 a.m. He paced the floor for a few moments, then decided he needed to get away from his bedroom and the nightmare that was lingering.

  He walked into his spare room and fell on his knees. “Oh God!” he cried with all sincerity, “don’t let this tragedy be so.” He continued to pray and weep and cry out before God. Then he raised both hands in total submission. He was still weeping when his hands came down. This time they landed on something he could hold on to. His altar replica was directly in front of him. Both his hands grabbed the horns of the altar. It was beyond anything he could reason, but this seemed to give him strength to continue to pray. He prayed and he wept and he prayed some more. He prayed with his prayer language and he prayed with his understanding.

  After a while he got up and was much surprised to find that an hour had passed. He felt like he had been to war and had somehow come back with more strength.

  Pastor Taylor drove Sister Marie to the church fellowship hall that Saturday afternoon and was a little more quiet than normal.

  “You know,” he said, carefully turning the corner that led to the church, “I’m a little surprised by David Edwards,” he said. “I expected him to have come to his senses by now and patch things up with Rose. I happen to know that he still loves her.”

  “Perhaps he has some issues that he needs to resolve before the marriage,” his wife offered.

  “Issues? please,” he said, in a condescending way. “Honey these young people don’t know about problems like we had when we were young. We lacked money and had to worry about war and...”

  “Sweetheart,” said Sister Marie, cutting him off, “maybe they don’t lack money, but they have a different kind of war. Maybe they are trying to-..”

  “Is that what you talk about in your little tea party? I hope it’s not just another Tupperware party where you throw in advice on how to keep your home clean,” he said with a little chuckle.

  “Would that be so wrong if it were?” she said sounding a bit exasperated.

  “Oh no, not at all honey,” he said realizing he may have hurt her feelings. He reached over and gave her hand a little squeeze. “Whatever you and the ladies are doing is fine with me. Women need good instruction and these women are getting it from the best,” he said smiling. “I’m just concerned that David and Rose aren’t making wedding plans. I always thought of him as a fine young man for my daughter, but right now, I don’t know,” he said, as he pulled up and parked in front of the fellowship hall.

  “I think if we pray for them and give them time, things will work out for the best,” she said.

  “That’s why I married you,” he explained. “You always know just what to say to make me feel better.”

  He got out of the car and opened her door for her. In the seven years they had been married, he was consistent about this one thing. He knew that she loved for him to open her door.

  “That’s funny,” she said as he assisted her out of the car. “I thought you married me for my money.”

  He laughed and hugged her. “Are you sure you have a ride home?” he asked. “Yes, I’m sure.” she said.

  “You’re not angry with me for the thoughtless remark I made about the Tupperware, are you?” he asked.

  “I wish you’d get out of here,” she teased. “There are at least twenty young women impatiently waiting to hear about how to clean their dirty ovens.”

  She was pleasantly surprised when she walked in the hall to see that everyone who had been invited was already there. She checked her watch to find that she wasn’t late. These women who she felt led to counsel, were all early, all anxious and all quiet.

  “Hello ladies,” she said with a smile. “I’m Sister Marie Taylor, for those of you who don’t know. I’m Pastor Taylor’s personal cook,” she said looking serious. There were giggles and a few uninhibited laughs.

  “Now that I know you’re not too religious to laugh, I can proceed. I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you today. If you don’t know the ladies you’re seated next to, please introduce yourselves.”

  This was her second attempt to help the women of her church. This was a totally different crowd than last month. As the talking came to a halt, she stood at the podium and looked around. “There are 22 of us here today. You’ve been invited by God; I extended the invitation on his behalf. You are here for one of two reasons. You either need to receive or you need to share. That’s it. No hidden agendas. No secret club. I love you. I met some of you during the Annual Fellowship. Some of you I don’t know very well. Like I said, I just wanted to be obedient and invite you here. At our first meeting, food was served first. I thought I’d reverse that at this meeting.”

  “By a show of hands, how many of you are married?” she asked. All but two hands were raised. “With children?” she continued. “Your husband is a good provider?” The hands stayed up. “Now, don’t raise your hand on this one. How many of you are happy? I don’t have to count hands because I can read your spirits,” she said.

  “You two ladies who aren’t married, what are your names?” she asked smiling? “I’m Clarissa,” said a rather shy young lady who was noticeably overweight for her height of five feet. “I’m DeBorah,” said the other young woman with a voice that you had to strain to hear.

  “Thank you for coming ladies,” said Sister Marie smiling warmly at them both.

  �
�I need a volunteer,” said Sister Marie as she handed some blank paper to a neatly dressed young woman. “What’s your name?” Sister Marie asked, standing directly in front of her.

  “I’m Nicole Davidson,” she answered sweetly.

  “Nicole, please give each young lady a sheet of paper. Ladies please raise your hand if you don’t have a pencil and Nicole will bring you one of these. Now after you all have received both a pencil and a sheet of paper, raise your hand,” she instructed.

  One by one the hands went up. Nicole took her seat in the front row.

  “You ladies have two minutes to draw a picture of what your idea of the perfect family looks like. Ready, set go,” she exclaimed while watching her wristwatch.

  The ladies at first looked puzzled, then proceeded to draw circles and other geometrical shapes. Sister Marie began to walk around the room, peering onto the papers as she watched the ladies drawing as quickly as they could.

  “Alright, times up!” she said.

  “Ladies, please exchange papers. Whoever gets 100 points, gets twenty dollars,” she said. “Please write the points in the right hand corner. Alright, if you drew a picture of a lady, ten points. A man - 20 points. A child -ten points for each child. Did anyone draw over 3 children? If one of the children is a baby, another 10 points. OK. A dog, cat or bird, 3 points. A house 10 points.

  Alright ladies give yourself 25 points, if you drew a picture of God somewhere in your drawing. There was a possible 108 points that you could have received. Did anyone get 100? Did anyone get 95 or higher? Did anyone get 90 or higher? Did anyone get 85 or higher?” Sister Marie acknowledged the hand of a young lady in the back of the room.

  “Great, tell us your name and your score,” she said.

  “Well,” said a rather tall young lady with her hair cut in an attractive style. “My name is Debbie Albright and my score was 86!” she said with excitement.

  “Go on and describe your perfect family picture,” Sis. Marie said. “OK” said Debbie, I had a picture of a woman, a man, three children, one was a baby, two dogs and a house.” The other ladies began to applaud her as she waved the winning paper in the air.

  “It’s interesting, that no matter how close you all came to 100 points, you all came up short. Just like we will all come up short in life, if we don’t add God to our picture. I’m sure that someone in here could have used twenty dollars, but you have to forfeit a blessing, because you did not consider God,” she said. There was a sound of murmuring that she couldn’t quite make out.

  “Does that make you unhappy? Good. Because God is not pleased when we leave him out of our “so called” perfectly happy homes. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can be a little closer to having real happiness. Now let’s get to work.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  David called his mother before leaving to go to the car wash. He also needed to go to the dry cleaners to pick up and drop off his shirts and finally go to the supermarket. That was one chore he dreaded. Thinking about it made him a little sad. He had often imagined he and Rose going together to the supermarket. Now, well he didn’t know what would happen. He needed to pick up a few things for his mother. Actually it was one big thing. She had placed a meat order at the butcher’s and she was happy that he would carry it to the deep freezer for her. He grabbed his shirts and stuffed them into a pillow case before heading out the door. It only took a couple of minutes to drop them at the dry cleaners. And of course, they always had his shirts ready for him when he got there. That was one of the things he enjoyed about this small city.

  His mom’s meat order was much smaller than he anticipated. Of course, there were only two of them. With the residue of the morning prayer still fresh in his mind, he brushed off the ever-present reminder of his parent’s separation. He would wait to wash his car after dropping off her meat. He didn’t want to take a chance in having it spoil, by forgetting to get it out of his trunk. When he pulled in the driveway, he popped the trunk from inside. He was barely out of the car when someone blew their car horn and drove by. He noticed it was his father’s car and he waved. His dad’s apartment was only a few blocks away. Yet something disturbed David so much that he could barely carry the package. It looked like a woman was on the passenger side of the car. He braced himself. He was just not ready to confront this. He had too many issues of his own. Hopefully, his mother wasn’t watching.

  Suddenly the side door opened and his mother walked out. “Hi Honey, why did you blow?” she asked.

  “It wasn’t me,” he answered. “Dad was driving by.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Thanks for picking up the meat. Want to come over for dinner tomorrow?”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” he said following her into the house. “I could use a good Sunday dinner. What are we having?”

  “Roast beef of course,” she answered. “Would it be Sunday without my roast beef?” she teased him.

  “While I’m here,” David said, changing the subject, “how’s Steph doing?”

  His mother seemed to ignore the question as she opened up the waxed paper to inspect the meat. David repeated his question and was taken aback by her response.

  “I heard you the first time,” she said. “I think Steph is doing the best she can. I, I really don’t want to talk about it right now, baby.”

  “It’s alright mom,” he said. “I know things are rather tough and you have a lot to deal with.”

  “Yes, I do,” she said in a surprisingly loud tone, as she turned around to face him. “And it’s just not fair. It’s not fair,” she said, with large tears flowing. David quickly went over and hugged his mom. He would have cried with her, but he was relying on the strength he received from that early morning prayer.

  “Things will get better,” he said. “They have to,” he declared by faith.

  “Do they?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said firmly, looking directly into her puffy face. He could feel anger swelling on the inside of him again. But he was only angry at one person. That person was the devil.

  “Don’t let me keep you from doing those things you need to do,” his mother said. “I know you mentioned the car wash. Go and take care of your business. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said wiping her face on her apron.

  David played the radio a little louder than normal going home. Washing his car helped him blow off a bit of steam, but he was still angry. He checked his machine for messages upon entering the house. His buddy, Stephen had invited him to a pickup game of basketball at the gym. He hadn’t seen Stephen since last month, although they used to talk all the time. At least all the time, by guys standards, which is once or twice a week. Now their jobs kept them too busy to shoot the breeze. Just last year in May, he had been the best man in Stephen’s wedding to Myra.

  He returned the call and agreed to meet him for a pick-up game that evening.

  The autumn sky seemed unusually red with streaks of bluish purple which made it appear surreal. There weren’t many cars on the parking lot of the gym. But sometimes when the weather is fair, it’s difficult to get the young guys to play inside. It didn’t matter to David because he was more interested in seeing his friend. Inside, he could hear the bouncing of a ball and the noise of tennis shoes pounding the gym floor. He ran into the game and tried to take the ball from a rather short guy who was dribbling. Stephen quickly took his eyes off the ball and recognized that David was the one joining the game uninvited. He laughed and grabbed his friend for a hug. They left three young guys to finish the game as they trotted off the court.

  “You’ve lost weight since last month,” David said.

  “Well, maybe a little,” Stephen agreed, as they both sat down in the locker room. It was deserted, so they selected that site to get reacquainted.

  “So what’s going on with you?” Stephen asked.

  “Man you wouldn’t believe the things going on in my life. I’ve postponed my wedding to Rose,” he said in a rather melancholy way, while watching Stephen�
��s eyes grow large with surprise. “And right now I’m just seeking God for clear directions. I’ve never been in a situation like I’m in now. Yet I feel closer to God than I’ve ever felt. I’m sure later I’ll be able to share some things with you.”

  “Wow!” Stephen remarked. “Oh well, he said matter-of-factly, I guess there’s just something in the air.”

  “What do you mean by that?” asked David.

  “Myra and I are having problems,” Stephen answered.

  “Problems?” David asked.

  “I need to be totally honest with you; we’re considering a separation,” he said, lowering his voice.

  David dropped his head as he felt his heart sinking. Here sitting before him, was one of the few friends he admired for having a great marriage. His friends were college sweethearts; career oriented and both steadfast Christians. At least he believed they were. David didn’t quite know what to say. He wanted to cry. He loved Myra like a sister. He didn’t know if he should probe into their affairs or wait to see if Stephen would voluntarily tell him the situation. This wasn’t an office client. This was his dear friend.

  “Do you want to talk about it? Because it’s ok if you don’t.”

  “I don’t mind,” Stephen said, “because God is my witness, I don‘t really know what happened.”

  “What does Myra say?” asked David.

  “She claims that about four months ago, I purposely embarrassed her at a dinner party that we had with some of our friends. I still don’t know what I said, because she won’t tell me. I apologized, but she says I’m insensitive. Well you know how I like to tease and kid around, I wouldn’t do anything to deliberately hurt her, but if you can remember, she never could take a joke,” Stephen said.

  “Yes, I do remember,” said David. “I think it had something to do with the verbal abuse she suffered as a child, from her stepfather.”