“She’s what?”
“I’m sorry, Dana. She called me on the way to the airport. I just found out.”
Dana spun to her left and stared at the white airport ceiling. “I don’t believe this.”
“Neither do I.”
She yanked her arms tight across her chest. “How would you feel if I reduced the number going with you to two?”
Reece looked at her with compassion. “That would be your choice.”
Dana unfolded her arms, tapped her cell phone, and looked at the time. Seven forty. She was tempted to ask for the number and call Tamera, but it wouldn’t change anything. If she wasn’t already working her way through security, she wouldn’t make the plane. But going to Well Spring as the only woman? No way.
Dana glanced back the way they’d come. Reece was right. It was her choice. She didn’t have to go. And right now she wanted to choose home.
“You said I wouldn’t be the only woman there.”
“That was the plan.” Reece turned and strode toward their gate. “Let’s make sure we’re there in time.”
“I need a few minutes to think about this.”
“Same thing Tamera said, so I’ll give you a similar answer. If you’re coming, you need to decide now.”
Why are you doing this to me, God?
Dana shut her eyes and ground her teeth. Unbelievable. She blamed Tamera, blamed Reece, blamed God, blamed herself. But she was already here and Toni was probably right. She needed this trip. Dana opened her eyes and glared at Reece. She had been an island all of her life. Why should she expect anything different now?
Dana grabbed her suitcase and slogged after Reece as the fatigue she should have been feeling earlier showed up in full force.
As they stood at the gate waiting to board, Reece motioned them both closer. “I am truly sorry, Dana. I thought Tamera would be the last one to cancel. But the enemy does not like what we’re about to do. Did you have any second thoughts about coming? Anything thrown at you to keep you home?”
Other than what had just happened? Yes. Her budgets. The possibility her job was hanging on a weakening string. Still stinging from another guy breaking up with her. But not enough to keep her from coming. “A few things.”
He looked at Marcus. “You, Professor?”
“Yes.” Marcus nodded as his face clouded over. “This morning my wife, Kat, talked me into coming. I’ve been a picosecond away from canceling for the past eleven hours.”
“A what?” Dana said.
“Excuse me. A trillionth of a second.”
Reece didn’t question why Marcus almost hadn’t come, and Dana didn’t know him well enough to ask.
“I would have been surprised if you hadn’t bumped up against resistance.”
“But not you, right, Reece?” She was half serious.
The look on his face said his battle ran deeper than she could imagine. So she wasn’t the only one with issues. And he probably wasn’t any happier about Tamera canceling than she was. Maybe it didn’t matter what Tamera did. Maybe the only choice Dana needed to consult the mirror about was her own.
Ten minutes later they boarded their Boeing 707 and sat in 2A, 2B, and 2C. Marcus patted his armrests and looked at Reece. “Thanks for the seats.”
Reece downed a glass of apple juice the flight attendant had given him and turned to Marcus across the aisle. “At my size, flying in coach is not easy for me or the people around me. So I always fly first class.”
Always? Fascinating. Nothing about Reece had ever reflected the ability to always fly first class. Not his car, not his watch, certainly not his clothes. Even though she’d known Reece for over a year, she had no idea what he did for a living. It had never come up and she’d never asked.
As the plane climbed its way to thirty-five thousand feet, Dana turned to Reece. “Would you like to tell me about the other guy who’s coming?”
Reece accepted a refill of apple juice from the flight attendant. “He’ll join us later this afternoon. He’s wrapping up a business commitment in Denver and should arrive at Well Spring shortly after we do.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“You’ll meet him when the time is right.”
“I don’t like that you haven’t told me who this guy is or anything about him.” She stared out her window at the rapidly shrinking ground below. “Just tell me his name.”
Reece downed his juice, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes. “Take a good look at Seattle.”
“Why is that?” Marcus asked.
“Because next time you’re here, you’ll be seeing things differently.”
“Do you care to expand on that?”
Reece pulled his hat over his eyes. “Please wake me up ten minutes before we touch down.”
Marcus leaned over to Dana and whispered, “Have you noticed how evasive he is when you inquire of him?”
“Yes. If he wasn’t so big, I’d strangle him.” She pulled the inflight magazine out of the seat pocket in front of her. “Did he tell you what we’d be doing at Well Spring?”
“It’s likely he didn’t reveal much more than you already know. We’re to explore a Christianity most followers of Jesus aren’t acquainted with. One we’re not acquainted with.”
Marcus was right. That part she’d heard. “Anything else?”
“That we’ll find more freedom and heal some emotional wounds by delving into our pasts.”
Great. Sharing her wounds and shortcomings with total strangers. Thanks, Lord. This will be a blast. Especially if the third guy wasn’t as approachable as Reece and Marcus.
Dana leaned closer to Marcus. “Do you know who the other guy is?”
“We were introduced last week.”
“Who is it?”
“I apologize.” Marcus squinted and shook his head. “But I assume you know Reece has asked me to stay silent on that matter.”
Dana slumped back in her seat, her stomach knotting as an image floated into her mind of arriving at Well Spring and being shoved inside the lions’ den.
NINE
As REECE, MARCUS, AND DANA BOUNCED ALONG A DIRT road three hours southwest of Denver, she tried to rid her mind of the pictures battering her imagination. Alone for four days. With three guys. One whom she’d never met. Exactly the scenario she’d promised herself she wouldn’t get into. Yes, marcus seemed fine. But reece wasn’t the type of guy who was entertained by small talk. This retreat wouldn’t be about cute and cuddly christianity. He would want everyone to go deep and open up. Not her strong suit.
You’re right. You shouldn’t have come.
The thought simmered in her mind and she latched onto it.
He’s not safe.
Who?
But Dana knew the answer.
You’ve seen it in some of the meetings you’ve been in with him. He’s on the fringe.
She stared out the window at the mountains rising far to her left as perspiration broke out on her forehead. Her stomach churned as the feelings of isolation and caution intensified. Dana couldn’t shake the feeling she was walking into an emotional minefield, or ignore the voice telling her to be on guard against Reece.
Yes. Be careful. He’s not stable. Reece is not of the Truth as he’s pretended to be.
She wiped her hands on her pants, but the moisture worked its way out of her skin with such persistence, she finally gave up and rested them on the seat next to her. Dana closed her eyes and tried to ignore the thoughts that filled her mind like a dark mist—it wasn’t true about Reece. He was solid. Loved God. Had tremendous wisdom. Was respected by all the people in their home group—but the images continued to pound her imagination.
It didn’t help that the headache that had started when they landed in Denver had slowly morphed into a full-blown eight point five on the Richter migraine scale. The three Aleve she’d taken half an hour ago hadn’t put even the hint of a fingerprint on it, and hitting a rut in the road every few seconds didn’t help the press
ure squeezing her brain like a grape at winepress time.
A minute later Reece made the situation worse. “You have to take those thoughts captive, Dana.”
“Wha . . . what are you talking about?” She opened her eyes and lurched forward.
“When you get hammered with thoughts from the enemy like you are right now about me, about coming to Well Spring, you have to fight them, but you can’t do it without the Spirit’s power. Your own strength and own thoughts won’t win. And I don’t think that migraine is from natural causes. I think it’s an attack. But I could be wrong.”
Her breathing grew shallow and rapid. “How do you know what is going on in my head?”
“Just an impression.”
“That came from . . . from where?” Dana strained against the seat belt as if she were strapped to a gurney in a hospital struggling to sit up. “How do you know about my thoughts? How did you know about my migraine?” Her whole body went hot. How had Reece gotten inside her head? He knew what she was thinking?
Reece looked at her in the rearview mirror. His eyes were soft. It was the most tender she’d seen them. “I apologize. My intent was not to scare you but to give you a way out of what you’re dealing with right now.”
“Who are you?”
“The same guy you’ve gotten to know over the past year. I’m just showing you a little more of who I am.”
“How do you have that kind of power?”
“It’s not my power.” Reece shook his head. “I’m just a man who has learned to hear the voice of the Spirit.”
Reece slowed the car and brought it to a stop on the side of the road. Then he turned and reached for her hand. She hesitated, then placed hers in his. It was warm, his touch gentle.
“Sometimes I’m wrong about what I hear from the Spirit. Sometimes I think I’ve heard God’s voice and I haven’t. But Jesus said his sheep would hear him. That the Spirit would speak to them. That’s all. So no fear, Dana. Don’t let any other lies in about me, or about you being here.”
She glanced at Marcus. The look on his face told her she wasn’t alone in her surprise at Reece’s mind-reading ability.
“God is for you. So am I. So is Marcus. It is all for good. That’s one of the reasons you’re here. To learn to hear his voice as well as I do. Maybe better.”
“Okay.” Dana’s breathing slowed. “But the thoughts are still there, my head is about to explode with this migraine, and I can’t say your freaking me out just now helped the anxiety sloshing around my brain.”
“Let’s take care of those things right now. Marcus?”
He looked at Reece. “Yes?”
“Will you join me in warring for Dana?”
“Uh, certainly.” Marcus shifted in his seat so he faced Dana. “What will the nature of this battle look like?”
“Prayer.”
“Right. Yes, of course.”
Marcus shut his eyes and bowed his head. Reece didn’t. He looked just above Dana’s eyes and spoke with intensity. “We come against the attack on Dana’s thoughts by the blood, power, and authority of Jesus Christ, our Master and King. And we come against her migraine and break its power. Go. Now. Leave her. Bring peace, Jesus. Bring more of you.”
Reece turned around, threw the rented Nissan Xterra into drive, and pulled back onto the dirt road.
“That’s it?” Marcus said.
“Yes.” Reece glanced back at her in the rearview mirror. “What’s going on now, Dana?”
“I don’t understand.” She blinked and massaged her temples. “This can’t be happening.”
“What are you feeling?”
She looked up at his reflection in the mirror, then at Marcus to Reece’s right. “How did you . . . I don’t . . . it’s gone.” It was impossible. Her migraines never just vanished. Never. Twenty years of gutting through them had conditioned her for at least a three-or four-hour battle every time. She rubbed her temples again and tried to feel a wisp of pain. “My migraine is completely gone.”
“What else? What about the thoughts?”
Right. The thoughts. She tried to access them, but it was like trying to find fog after a summer sun had burnt off an early morning cloud cover. They had vanished as well.
“All I can think about is peace.” She shook her head. “My mind is . . . clear. It’s clear now.”
“Good. That’s Jesus. That’s his heart, the way he feels about you in action.”
“That prayer didn’t have a great deal of length to it,” Marcus said.
Reece glanced at him. “Was it supposed to?”
“I . . .” Marcus stopped.
“I know, I understand. The longer we pray, the more God is obligated to answer our prayer, right? I slip into that way of thinking from time to time. But that’s religion, earning the right for our prayers to be answered.” Reece adjusted his hat. “Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes prayer takes hours and fierceness and perseverance to find breakthrough. But sometimes it doesn’t.”
“What gives indication of the kind of prayer that will be necessary?”
“You listen to the Spirit.”
“What are the inner workings of the listening?”
Dana slumped back in her seat and only listened to fragments of Reece and Marcus’s continuing conversation. She was still reeling from what just happened. All questions about Reece being the real deal and her needing to come to Well Spring turned to vapor. But if this was only the beginning, what was in store for her over the next four days? The thought was exhilarating and unnerving at the same time.
They rode for the next twenty minutes in silence. Part of Dana wanted to pepper Reece with all kinds of questions. Another part asked why? It was obvious what had happened. They prayed for healing and God healed her. Why was that so tough? She’d heard God’s healing power preached in church for years. She’d prayed for others to get healed. But she never believed it would really happen. And it hadn’t. Not like this.
It had always been so distant. Like looking at a snowcapped mountain through binoculars turned the wrong way—not ever really knowing if her prayers made a difference. Yes, sometimes people got better, but whether they did or didn’t, it never diminished or increased her faith.
What had just happened was on the spiritual field of battle in a close-up-and-very-personal way and had already taken her faith to another stratosphere. What was it Marcus had told her on the plane? That Reece said the magic is real? At least for the moment that was very, very true.
Marcus was the first to break the silence. “I’d like to pose a question, Reece.”
“Sure.”
“Who is the proprietor of Well Spring Ranch?”
“The owner chooses to remain anonymous. They hire a man to manage the place, coordinate renting it out, but the person who built it stays in the shadows.”
“You haven’t met him or her?”
“I have.” Reece hesitated and adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “But I’ll leave it at that.”
The silence returned for another ten minutes. Dana broke it this time.
“How remote is Well Spring?”
“Very. The nearest house is fifteen miles away.”
“How much farther?”
“We’re getting there, making good time. I’m guessing—”
“Hey, my phone just dropped to one bar.” Dana tapped on her phone. “How is the coverage at the ranch?”
“Now that’s a picture,” Reece said.
“What’s a picture?”
“I was imagining a picture of your face when your cell phone shows no bars.” Reece pointed out the window of the vehicle with his forefinger. “Not much longer till that happens.”
“Hold on. Are you saying we won’t have cell service up here?” Dana’s head snapped forward.
“You’ve always been sharp, Dana. I can see why God chose you as one of the four.” He winked at her in the mirror.
“What about Wi-Fi?”
Reece shook his head.
; “I’m not going to be able to get to the Internet on my laptop?”
“Correct.”
“Then we have a major problem. You didn’t say anything about no Internet and no cell service.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“I didn’t think I needed to.” Dana ground her fingernails into her thigh.
“You assumed.”
“I have to be in contact with my station. They have to be able to reach me. I need to be able to reach them.”
“They won’t have that opportunity for the next four days.”
“They have to,” Dana said.
“Who says?”
“Just stop the car, Reece, and turn it around.”
“Drive you back? Drop you off at the airport?”
“That will be fine.”
“I thought you were going to stop listening to the voices, Dana.” Reece kept driving.
“Stop the car!”
Reece glanced out the window. “My guess is we have about six more miles before we reach the ranch. That means we’ve come forty-four miles since we last saw any signs of significant civilization. If you’d like, you can get out of the car right now and hike back to Buena Vista, rent a car, and drive to the airport.”
Dana slumped back in her seat and muttered, “I’m going to get fired.”
“I believe they will survive without you. My prediction is the station will still be standing when you emerge out of the wilderness.”
“That’s so reassuring.”
The SUV hit a pothole that rattled her joints. Reece didn’t seem to notice. “At sixty-two I’m old enough to remember when cell phones were not in every pocket of every pair of pants in the entire universe. But somehow mankind survived. Technology is an amazing gift from the human race. The lack thereof at Well Spring Ranch is a gift from God. It’s a place to unplug from the matrix.”
“The matrix?”
“Yes.”
“So that’s one of the reasons you wanted me to watch that weird movie.”
“Yes, one of them.”
Reece turned to Marcus. “It doesn’t seem like the lack of cell coverage is bothering you.”
His face was white. “The lack of cell coverage isn’t a gift, it’s a nightmare.”
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