by Tony Nalley
It was Lucian’s silver bullet that fell him! It was Lucian’s heart that changed!
It was then as it was in John 1:49 that the ‘House of Nathanael’ declared… ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel’.
And I watched as Lucian laid his gun down upon the ground …and as he knelt before the cross …and as he joined me there in prayer. I had spared his life …but it was God who had changed his heart!
“Good thing they didn’t turn out to be vampires, huh?” Colby said jokingly as he and Cricket both joined us and knelt down before the cross. Cricket nudged me in her playful way, as the sound of a thousand ‘werewolf’s grew silent, and as they returned to their human forms.
The ‘order of the wolf’ did as their leader had done. They followed the call of the alpha-male. Just as a leader of a great country bows his knee, so does the will of his people. And like a single drop of rain upon the water …all knees were bent and all heads were bowed!
“Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we are your children. We believe in you through the Holy Spirit. And we confess you with our mouths. We are saved by the blood of Jesus and we belong to you. I ask you Father to forgive me, to forgive all of us, for every sin, removin’ that sin from our hearts and the pain from our lives. For it is by your word that we confess our sins, that we may be forgiven in your sight. We confess those sins to you Father …that the power of this blood curse be broken through the blood that was shed by your son, Jesus Christ! We also confess the sins of our fathers, our grandfathers, and our great-grandfathers throughout the generations …where curses had came upon us and where evils were introduced into our families. We break the power of every spoken curse …every evil word that came out of our mouths and we claim your blessing! We revoke the power of the blood curse by the authority and power in the name of Jesus Christ! We confess that the curse is now broken by the authority of His name! And we command every evil spirit which came in through that opened door to leave us now in the name of Jesus Christ! We pray. Amen.”
And I saw as by a vision, as I lifted up my eyes …the ghostly white apparition who had fought beside me in battle, as he held out his hand for the ‘Sang Pierre’! I looked to Lucian and I kept my word …and I handed him the stone. This was the first time in the history of the curse, that the Stone of Blood was placed into the hands of the people. Lucian took up the stone then, and with only a moment’s hesitation …he placed it into the apparition’s ghostly hands.
…And there came a great white light that enveloped me, taking me up …up …up into the air within a ring of circling winds …and I saw a young maiden as she rose up from the pure white light surrounding Cricket, and as she ran free of her bonds, a beautiful young maiden with flowing locks of auburn hair and eyes of emerald green! She ran into the arms of the man who was her father; the same apparition who had fought beside me, the ghostly spirit of Obadiah. Visions of generations filled my senses then as timeless ages passed …the whirling winds brought memories …like the pages of my life …and I lost myself there within my vision …lost within the pages of time …and then I heard a voice that called my name …a voice that called me …‘Sunshine’ …and as I looked I saw a single red balloon floating freely upon the air, where no clouds obstructed its view and where no winds took it from my sight! And I looked upon it with eyes of innocence, and I reached out and I took up its string …and I remembered an important somethin’ that God wanted me to remember …and the curse of the Stone of Blood was ended…
***
June 1864
Obadiah found Caleb as he lay dead within the hidden chamber of his workshop, clutching the ‘Sang Pierre’ within his hands. And he knelt down beside his son and he cried for him.
It was then that Nathanael came up from behind and ran him through with the blade of his sword! And he laughed an evil laugh.
But it was in that moment of final victory that a ghostly white apparition flowed through him, startling him, catching him unaware! A moment that allowed Obadiah time to rise up his gun and fire its silver bullet!
Obadiah buried his son by the light of that summer moon with his name written clearly upon his stone. And then he placed the golden box of the ‘Sang Pierre’ into Nathanael’s hands, along with a glimmering silver sword that he laid by his side; a silver sword that he had once made as a wedding gift for his daughter’s betrothed; the same man who he would now bury in an unmarked grave.
The mortal wound Obadiah had been dealt would not allow him to fulfill his promise; his promise to protect the ‘Sang Pierre’. So Obadiah took up the stone in his hands to become ‘spirit’ as well, so that he might hold true to his word …and protect his daughter …til’ she be set free!
***
I sat up there on that old fence post like a modern day Tom Sawyer of sorts, at least wise in my mind and all; and except for I was wearin’ shoes. I sat up there contemplatin’ on life like I was a King or somebody important like that; chewin’ on a tall piece of grass I’d picked up from outta the field.
The shadows from Mr. Roberts’s red barn were playin’ catch with the lights comin’ in from the other side of it. The sunlight was dancin’ back and forth across the yard like sparklin’ diamonds on the water; the grass still bein’ damp from the early mornin’ rains and all. The sunrise had been a particularly beautiful mixture of bright oranges and yellows that mornin’; and there was just the faintest scent of honeysuckles blowin’ in on that cool autumn wind.
I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I growed up then mind you. But I reckoned that as long as Cricket was there with me, then she’d be there to help me figure it out.
I watched her as she rode her horse from the fields across the way to meet me. And then we rode together down by the cool waters and through the meadows of grassy green …where we dreamed of a happily ever after.
The end.
Afterthought’s from the Author
“After the writing of this book had ended, I realized that I myself had not closed a chapter in my own life. While the characters and stories in this book are fiction, they are based upon real events and real people that I knew, friends that I know and places where I have been and lived.
The girl in the story never knew that I had such strong feelings for her, feelings of caring, warmth and love. All that she knew were the words contained in a secret love letter written by the hand of a young boy who had not the courage then to sign his name.
As the years passed I made a promise to myself that if I were ever to see her again, I would be man enough to make a fool of myself and let her know that I had been the stupid boy who had written her the letter. A letter that had taken me over a month and a half to write, just so that it would read as pretty as I thought her to be; words that were written as if by Romeo to Juliet.
On the day I saw her, my heart skipped a beat. And I told her hello. I told her that I was sorry; I had been such a shy, awkward, and stupid boy who could not openly show his feelings for her at the time, and sign his name at the bottom of the letter. I told her of how even now, I still held that same depth of feeling for her and that I still cared for her; and of how she would always be that beautiful girl who rode her horse through the grassy green fields of my memories.
That’s when she told me of her family, her husband and her son.
I find that life doesn’t always lead us down the paths that we’d like it to. But love is what it is. And while my heart may hurt, it does it good to see her happy, for if you truly love someone that’s how you want them to feel.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou, Professor of EnglishLiteratureWakeForestUniversity, Winston-Salem, NC.
The words spoken by the Wizard to the Tin Man were wrong. A heart is judged by how much you love …not by how much you are loved by others.
‘Cricket’ found her happily ever after …after all. And ‘Tob
y’ …well that my friends may be found on the pages of a whole other story….” ~ Tony
References:
Pope Leo XII
Leo XII's domestic policy was one of extreme conservatism: "He was determined to change the condition of society, bringing it back to the utmost of his power to the old usages and ordinances, which he deemed to be admirable; and he pursued that object with never flagging zeal."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Trent
http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/bldef_leoxii.htm
St. Joseph’s Cathedral Church Bell
Around its surface, (Bell) and preceding the dates 'Lyons 1821' and the holy names 'Jesu-Maria' appears the sentence from Holy "Writ: ' Audite verhum domini omnes gentes, et annuntiate in insulis quae procul sunt.' The impression has been general, as well among the clergy as the deity, that this bell was a gift to Bishop Flaget from Louis Phillippe, Duke of Orleans, afterwards king of France, who desired thus to acknowledge his sense of obligation for courtesies extended to him by that prelate, when he was an exile in the Island of Cuba.
http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/illinois-catholic-historical-society/illinois-catholic-historical-review-1918---1929-volume-volume-viii-number-1-t-ill/page-22-illinois-catholic-historical-review-1918---1929-volume-volume-viii-number-1-t-ill.shtml
http://www.stjoechurch.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_St._Joseph_Proto-Cathedral
http://www.markobryan.com/12-14-05%20content/pages/Saint%20Joseph.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=Sw1MWF_IFwUC&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=floor+plan+of+St+Joseph+basilica+bardstown&source=bl&ots=aOguR_tumV&sig=oXhr0hOdg1zSpIRlYPCUYnALFWA&hl=en&ei=w1xeTomGFY6NsALemeQ5&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1280&bih=818&wrapid=tljp13148069291841322&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=St+Joseph+basilica+bardstown&fb=1&gl=us&hq=St+Joseph+basilica&hnear=0x88685224eb0a98fb:0xa147e5666a735f7a,Bardstown,+KY&cid=15116864682858830687&ei=SGJeTvGhDoWHsgKF74kX&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=photo-link&cd=1&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CD4QnwIoADAD
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Buildings/index.php?state=KY&city=Bardstown&id=13894
http://www.jstor.org/pss/25012521
The Bard Family
The town of Bardstown was laid out by William Bard on lands of David Bard. It was named after the latter.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cbard/Bard_Gen_Page/Tonyiam.html
Witches
"The Untold Story of Mary Ayer Parker: Gossip and Confusion in 1692"
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon-salem/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=salem/texts/bios.xml&style=salem/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&chunk.id=b42&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes
John Rowan
During an epidemic of cholera that spread through Bardstown in 1833, three of Rowan's children (William, Atkinson, and Mary Jane) died. The spouses of William and Mary Jane also died of cholera, as did Mary Jane's daughter, and Rowan's sister Elizabeth and her husband. Aid from Bishop Joseph Flaget and a group of nuns who traveled to Federal Hill during the epidemic probably spared the life of Rowan's orphaned granddaughter, Eliza Rowan Harney.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rowan_(Kentucky)
John Fitch
Fitch began (1785) work on the invention of the steam engine and steamboat and secured soon afterward the exclusive right to build and operate steamboats on the waters of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and Virginia. A trial run of his first steamer (1786) was only a partial success. His next vessel, launched and operated on the Delaware River in 1787, was followed by two others. Although Fitch was not alone in developing the steam engine and steamboat, there is good evidence that he invented the first American steamboat. Nevertheless, he failed to receive either the opportunity to commercialize his invention or the recognition he justly deserved. Frustrated by endless disappointments, Fitch committed suicide in Bardstown, Ky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fitch_(inventor)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31380953/Life-of-John-Fitch-The-Inventor-of-the-Steam-boat-by-Thompson-Westcott-1857
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/john-fitch#ixzz1UNXjhHmP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fitch_(inventor)
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/v/a/i/Robert-S-Vail-iii/GENE1-0019.html
Battle of New Orleans
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/battleofneworleans.htm
Lystra
Lystra was a proposed town that was to be located near the Rolling Fork of the Salt River in what was then NelsonCounty. It was planned about 1794 and lots where to be sold from an office in London (England), but the town wasn't built.
http://www.holylandphotos.org/browse.asp?s=1,3,8,21,57
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/asia_minor_p20.jpg
http://www.uky.edu/KentuckyAtlas/ky-lystra.html
http://www.bible-history.com/smiths/L/Lystra/
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lycaonia
Henry Schenck Tanner
(1786–1858), was an American cartographer, born in New York.
Part of Tanner's 1822 map of North America, depicting the Pacific Northwest. He produced A Geographical and Statistical Account of the Epidemic Cholera from its Commencement in India to its Entrance into the United States in 1832 in response to the worldwide cholera epidemic of 1817.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Schenck_Tanner
Raphael
Raphael was one of the great masters of the Renaissance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Cartoons
http://wotruth.com/COMMENTARIES-NEW/Acts/Acts-062.htm
http://ukcc.uky.edu/atlas/listing.html
The Battle of Bardstown
The Battle of Bardstown, fought on October 4, 1862, was a turning point for the Eighth Texas Cavalry and would be recorded as that unit's finest hour. History would soon forget this skirmish, focusing instead on the larger Battle of Perryville, fought just four days later. http://www.visitbardstown.com/tourism/civilWar.html
Father Joseph Flaget
Benedict Joseph Flaget (1763–1850) was a French-U.S. bishop. He served as the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bardstown between 1808 and 1839, then as bishop of the Diocese of Louisville between 1839 and 1850 when the See was transferred to Louisville in 1839.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Joseph_Flaget
http://books.google.com/books?id=CmwQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA93&dq=Joseph+Flaget+in+Rome&output=text
http://books.google.com/books?id=rhg3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA386&dq=Bishop+Flaget+Lystra&hl=en&ei=Aa8cToeVHu39sQKO0pXhCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=rhg3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA386&lpg=PA386&dq=Flaget+Lystra&source=bl&ots=09mCWp-wGt&sig=iZFfwPruATXPs_BygV1REZW-1eI&hl=en&ei=wa0cTqibLIf-sQL8nOieCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Flaget%20Lystra&f=false
Highway 31E
There are various historical sites along 31E in Kentucky. Among them are CaveHillCemetery and Farmington Historic Plantation in Louisville, My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown, and Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site just south of Hodgenville. http://www.trailsrus.com/civilwar/region3/hodgenev.html
http://www.trailsrus.com/hwy31/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_31E_in_Kentucky
Bourbon Whiskey
Kentucky was originally known as the Kentucky District of Virginia. Because America was grateful to France for helping us defeat England and win our independence, the Virginia legislature used French names for American territories.
http://www.straightbourbon.com/articles/ccname.html
Ghost stories of Bardstown
http://loricase.com/nelson/marsden.html
http://www.prairieghosts.com/bardst.html
http://www.
kentuckybigfoot.com/counties/nelson.htm
Surname: McNally
Surname meaning “The son of the Hound of Ulster.” This is the name of a legendary character from Irish folklore. In more modern times, Cú Chulainn is often referred to as the "Hound of Ulster".
Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/McNally#ixzz1S0MFOlHE http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/McNally
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%BA_Chulainn
