by Mark Goodwin
“Well, don’t tempt me with a million dollars, but you’re right. Nothing short of a full million will keep me from voting.”
“Did you stop going to Faith Chapel?” he asked.
“Yeah, we’ve been going to the Church of God down in Buda the past three weeks.” Ava was glad that he noticed she wasn’t there.
“Oh.” He paused. “Because of the attacks?”
“No. We kept going after the attacks.”
“Because of Pastor Rob—I mean Rob Cody? It’s hard to quit saying Pastor Rob.”
“Not because of what he did, he’s not there anymore, so it’s not fair to take it out on the whole church for what one man did. More because of the way it was handled. Leadership was very vague about the whole thing. I still don’t feel like I really know what happened. I just assume the rumors on the news were true since that’s all I had to go on. But the severance thing was why we left. I can’t justify giving money, especially half a million dollars, to an adulterer. And if I keep giving to Faith Chapel, I know that’s where my money is going. So, if I can’t give there, I don’t feel like I should be going there. Charity feels the same way.”
Foley nodded. “A lot of people feel the way you do. I certainly didn’t like that either. Pastor Jon Ravis asked me to take over Faith House. They made him senior pastor, so someone had to step in for his position at the house.”
“So you took it?”
“Yeah, out of a sense of duty. To whom much is given, much is required.”
“And you dropped the lawn business?”
“No. I’m doing both. The position at Faith House is on a volunteer basis at the moment. They don’t have money in the budget to pay me. Giving is way down, as you can imagine.”
Ava nodded. “Plus, the $500,000 adultery bonus. That chews up quite a bit of available capital for paying staff.”
“Severance—but I agree with what you’re saying.”
“You’ve still got your business. How’s that doing?”
“Pretty good for the time being. If people start getting laid off, they’ll do their own lawns and pools. They’ll put off handyman projects altogether unless it becomes an emergency. It’s a home services business. We do pool cleaning and small handyman jobs in addition to landscaping and lawn maintenance. I handle the marketing. I’ve got crews who handle all the actual services and another guy who takes care of the books.”
“Oh. That big ol’ truck, I figured you actually did the work yourself.”
“I did, but every time I hire someone new, I have to go scare up more jobs.”
“Sounds backward. Don’t you generally hire people because you have more work than you can handle?”
“Yeah, but a lot of these guys graduate from Faith House and don’t have a job. Some of them get gigs working around the wrong people and lose focus. Next thing you know, they’re getting high or drinking again. I can’t give jobs to all of them, but for the ones I can, I do. It provides a good environment and an extra level of accountability. Sometimes, that’s the difference in life and death.
“When someone’s been clean for a long time, then tries to go out and do the same amount of dope or pills they did before, they’ll often OD. They’ve lost their tolerance and their heart just can’t take it. It’s happened way too many times. I’ve watched far too many guys die from an overdose. And they usually leave behind a family. If I can stop that from happening, I feel like I’m making a difference.”
Ava looked into his eyes while she listened. “That’s really nice. I guess we should get started.”
He looked at the sharp pick in her hand. “Be gentle.”
“I won’t hurt you. I promise.” She gently put her hand on his arm.
“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep.”
Ava spoke with conviction. “I never make a promise that I don’t intend to keep.”
He glanced at her hand, which remained on his arm. “Are we still talking about my cleaning?”
She blushed and lost the battle against the telltale grin creeping across her face. “Open wide and turn your mouth toward me.”
CHAPTER 16
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Isaiah 41:10-13
Early Friday morning, Ava awoke to the sound of Buckley barking at the door. She grabbed the large-frame 1911 pistol from her nightstand and jumped from her bed. “What is it, boy?”
Buckley growled at the door handle, then gave out two more menacing barks.
Ava walked to the door and checked the peephole. She didn’t see anyone. “Good job, Buckley! You scared them off.”
Ava’s blood was pumping from the thought of someone trying to get in. Buckley was accustomed to her neighbors walking by the door at all hours of the day and night. Yet, he’d never barked like that before. She felt sure someone must have been jiggling the doorknob. It gave her the creeps as she considered who it might be. Ava retrieved the dog treats from the top cupboard and gave Buckley three instead of the customary single treat he usually got for being a good dog. “That’s right, Buckley. You watch ‘em. You’re a good watchdog. The best there’s ever been.”
Buckley wagged his tail and became somewhat excited over his reward of three dog treats.
Ava sat on the couch, pistol in one hand and dog treats in the other as she fed him one treat at a time. “I wish we had a camera, Buck. I sure would like to know who was out there. It better not be Chip. If he comes around here, he’ll be singing soprano when he leaves.”
Buckley wagged his tail in agreement and ate his last treat.
“And that lurker from the cemetery, if it’s him, he’ll be spending a lot more time in the graveyard. I’m trying to be a nice person here, but I’ve been robbed, attacked at my church, and dealt with unwanted sexual advances, all in the course of a month. I’ve had about enough.”
Buckley sat on the floor near her feet, ready to listen for as long as Ava needed to vent.
“You should get another treat for putting up with me.” She gave him a firm pat on the head.
Ava checked the time. “4:25 AM. No use trying to go back to sleep now.” Ava got up from the couch and started a pot of coffee. She put her running clothes on but thought about who could have been at the door. “I wonder if they’re still around?” She pulled her Glock from her purse. “If I run with a gun, it’s going to get sweaty. Besides, it’s gonna be jiggling everywhere.”
Ava fired up her laptop while her coffee finished brewing. She checked out the available online options for concealed-carry workout clothes, opting to buy a pair of leggings with a built-in holster, a concealed-carry belly band, and a tank top with a holster under the arm. “I guess we’ll try them all and go with what works best. For today, I’ll wear my regular holster and tuck it in a Ziploc baggie to keep it from getting wet.” She looked down at Buckley. “You’ll have to keep the predators back until I can get my gun out of the bag.”
Ava stretched, sipped her coffee, and drank a couple of liters of water to hydrate for a long run. “I’ll take a little water for you, Buck, but you need to hydrate also.” Ava put a couple ice cubes in Buckley’s water bowl to encourage him to drink before their morning run.
Even with a dog and a gun, Ava stayed on the well-lit path since the sun wouldn’t be up for three more hours. Considering she had extra time, Ava ran two additional miles. Buckley kept up with her brilliantly. She returned to her apartment, keeping her eyes peeled for potential threats around every corner.
“Good workout Bu
ck!” Once back inside, Ava caught her breath, filled Buckley’s water bowl, and hit the shower.
When Ava arrived at work, Charity was waiting. She popped up from her desk and followed Ava to the back. “So, you were supposed to tell me how it went with your 1:15 cleaning yesterday, but it must have slipped your mind. Did you slip out the back door yesterday?”
“I had to get home to walk Buckley.”
“Now he’s been walked and you’re here.”
Ava bit her lip, determined not to make a big deal out of it. “There’s really nothing to tell.”
“Then why are you trying so hard not to smile?”
“Just . . . happy, I guess.”
“Oh, got a good night sleep and all of that?”
“Not really. Buck was barking at something. I got up at four twenty-five to check for potential intruders.”
“Yet you’re still smiling.”
Ava grabbed a box of nitrile gloves from the supply closet. She grinned but said nothing.
“Top secret, I see. Would it be safe to say you’re going to test the murky waters of trust?”
Ava walked toward her exam room with Charity close behind. “It would be safe to say I’ll consider testing the ominous depths.”
“Don’t consider too long.” Charity paused by Ava’s exam room door while Raquel passed by. “Those waters are teaming with piranha who might devour your handsome stallion while you’re making up your mind.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “Will that be all the love advice for today?”
“Yes.” Charity began to walk away, then turned. “Oh! I almost forgot.”
“What?”
“Michael Ross is having a campaign rally in Austin tomorrow afternoon.”
“You’re kidding! I haven’t heard anything about it.”
“Impromptu. Trying not to give too much of a heads up for Antifa to get organized. You know they’ll be there to intimidate Ross’ supporters.”
“Why Austin? It’s a liberal cesspool.”
“Dallas and Houston are majority democratic cities as well. So is San Antonio. But they’re even bigger than Austin. That makes them more of a security nightmare than our fair share. With him being president now, that changes everything. Secret Service has completely different protocols for a sitting president. With all the liberals who have moved here from California, Texas could go blue for the first time since 1976. And if our state falls to the left, I don’t think Ross can win. He has to come to Texas. Where else is he going to go besides Austin?”
Ava considered the gravity of her state’s thirty-eight electoral votes in the contest for 270. “Are you going?”
“Yep. James got you a ticket if you want to come along.”
“I want to go. Tell him thanks. Are you taking your gun?”
Charity shook her head. “No, and you’re not either. They’ll have metal detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs, and snipers all over the place. If Secret Service catches you trying to take a gun in the same room with the president, you’ll be in Guantanamo before sunset.”
“I could leave it in the car. With Antifa all over the place, we should at least have a weapon nearby.”
“I don’t think Secret Service is going to put up with Antifa. We’ll be safe.”
Ava looked at Charity like she was being naive. “If something pops off, Secret Service will get Ross out of there and leave all the chaos to the remaining eleven Austin cops who are still playing catch-up with 911 calls from last Monday.”
“It’s not that bad. Austin still has seventy percent of the police force we had before the pension crisis.”
“Yep. And I’m sure Mayor Beset has already told them to stand down if they see Antifa beating up on Ross’ supporters.”
The practice of issuing stand-down orders to police by far-left mayors had become a popular trend over the past three campaign cycles. Charity could not refute the possibility of it happening in Austin. “James is driving. I’ll express your concern to him and see if he wants to keep some firearms in the car.”
Raquel walked back by, sucking on another lollipop. “You guys going to the Ross rally tomorrow?”
“I thought you hated Ross,” Ava said.
She pulled the lollipop out of her mouth. “Oh, I do. I’m going to protest. I’d offer to give you guys a lift, but it might be kinda . . . you know—weird.”
“Thanks for thinking of us.” Charity gave a blatantly insincere grin.
“See you there.” Raquel winked and stuck the lollipop back in her mouth before walking away.
Ava grunted. “So much for Antifa not finding out.”
“You don’t actually think Raquel is involved with Antifa, do you?”
Ava raised her shoulders. “She’s with the Social Justice Warriors League. They’re like Antifa lite. But you can bet that if SJWL is there, Antifa won’t be far behind.”
Saturday came and Ava’s phone rang. “Hey, I’ll be down in a minute.”
She hugged Buckley and gave him a big kiss on the head. “You be a good boy. Don’t let any bad guys in, and you’ll get two treats when I get home.”
Buckley licked her face and she pulled away with a giggle. “Okay, Buck. You’re destroying my makeup.”
Ava slung the strap of her heavier-than-normal purse over her shoulder, grabbed her keys, and headed out the door.
Once downstairs, she got into the back seat of James’ Chevy Cruze. “Thanks for picking me up.”
James turned to look at Ava before pulling away from the building. “I’m glad you could come with us. Charity always said you weren’t the biggest Higgins supporter, so I didn’t know if you would be backing Ross.”
“She doesn’t really like Ross either,” Charity clarified from the passenger’s seat as they drove off.
Ava answered for herself before her friend further misrepresented her views. “I voted for Higgins, and I’ll be voting for Ross, also. Neither of them were my first choice in any of the primaries, but they weren’t my last choice either. We could have done worse, even from the field of Republicans, but we could have done better. Don’t get me wrong, simply on the issue of the Supreme Court nominations, Higgins has been sooo much better than his opponent would have been.
“And given the choice of Ross or Markovich, believe me, I’m a fervent Ross supporter.”
Charity interjected. “Ava’s a Libertarian.”
“Conservatarian.” Once again, Ava had to rectify Charity’s misrepresentation.
Ava sat her purse in the seat beside her. “So, you guys packing heat?”
Charity squealed and spun around in her seat. “Oh no! I get ridiculed for saying strapped, but you can say packing heat? With double standards like that, we might mistake you for a Democrat!”
Ava laughed. “Whatever!”
Charity turned back around to face forward. “But to answer your question, yes. We’ve got our pistols in the glove box and a shotgun in the trunk.”
“Whoa! You guys are going to war.”
“Better to have a gun and not need it . . .” James began.
“. . . than need a gun and not have it. I know,” Ava finished for him. “Can I stick my pistol in the trunk also?”
“We can probably squeeze it in the glove box. It locks,” Charity said.
“I don’t know. I brought my 1911. It’s a little bigger than my Glock. Plus, I have my spare magazine.”
“Sounds like you’re going to war,” Charity joked.
“Well, I couldn’t pack it into the theatre anyway, so I figured why not bring the big boy. Besides, it has a higher shot capacity than that little Glock. And if I manage to hit anything, it will make a huge difference.”
Long before they arrived at the parking garage, Ava began spotting stray protestors heading toward the Moody Theater where Ross would be speaking. “Social Justice Warriors are here.”
“They’re all over the road.” James had to slow down to a crawl as he continued driving down West 2nd Street. “Liberals are walking contrad
ictions.”
“How so?” Ava asked.
“They all believe in Darwinism, but they provide irrefutable proof that survival of the fittest has nothing to do with a species survival. Look at them walking in the middle of the road like zombies! According to Darwin, lefties should have died out 700 trillion years ago.”
“I can’t argue with that logic.” Ava leaned forward as the vehicle progressed at the same glacial pace as the SJWs on foot.
CHAPTER 17
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:4-9
Ava, Charity, and James finally made it to the parking garage. The rally wouldn’t start for another hour, but the first four levels were already full. James found a space on the fifth tier. Ava kept her ID and some cash in her pockets. She stuck her purse with the 1911 in James’ trunk.
An SUV pulled in to park next to James’ Chevy. Five men, about the same age as Ava and her friends, got out of the SUV. All five wore Ross for President hats which put Ava at great ease. But they didn’t look dressed for the rally. Instead, they had on knee pads, elbow pads, and wore American flag bandanas. They opened the back of the SUV and took out backpacks. They also retrieved handmade shields, which looked like they’d been fabricated from 55-gallon plastic barrels. Next, the men took out American flags affixed to heavy wooden poles. The flags were mounted upside down.
