Commencement

by Lawrence Cherry

The sky was grey and cloudy, but it wasn’t as cold as it had been previously. The wind was calm and still. It almost seemed like fall rather than winter as Tim and Tamiko walked through the park on Sunday afternoon. The church service had ended a while ago and Allen and Davis stayed behind to attend Daniel’s Brotherhood Bible Study class. This left Tim and Tamiko wondering how to pass the time until Sunday Dinner. They were both much too restless to sit around in the coffee shop so they opted to take a walk through the park and take in the view.

  “Ready for the Holiday Season?” Tim asked.

  “Not really. I haven’t finished my Christmas shopping and I still have things to work out for this year’s Christmas Celebration”, answered Tamiko. “What about you?”

  “Same. Not much done on the personal front. I hate Christmas shopping. I never know what to get. I need a personal shopper. Like you for instance. I don’t think I told you, but my mom absolutely loved the handbag you picked out.”

  “Glad to hear it. Guess she and I do have the same tastes, after all.”

  “You think maybe you could help me out again?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. So long as you don’t wait until Christmas Eve.”

  “No, I’m not one of those people who gets a rush from being in the crowds.”

  “When is that often talked about vacation of yours finally going to get here?”

  “I’ve only got one more week before my vacation. Then I’ll have three whole weeks to myself, the week before Christmas through the week after. I just need to figure out what I’m going to do with all this time on my hands.”

  “I know one thing that you should do, if you haven’t made time already.”

  “Yes, I know I need to see a doctor. I am. I already have an appointment if you must know.”

  “Good. So when are we going?”

  “It’s the Friday before I go on vacation. I decided to take a half-day the Friday before and see the doctor in the afternoon at 4:00.”

  “And then you are going to need to go on a long rest. You should get out of the city and go some place nice and quiet and relaxing.”

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking. Just get away from the insanity of Herns and Marshall.”

  “Things haven’t gotten any better I take it.”

  “It’s funny. In a way it’s worse and in a way it’s better even.”

  “Okay….”

  “It’s like…How can I say this…there are things going on that I can’t explain…It’s almost like there are some supernatural forces at work.”

  “By supernatural forces, do you mean like God?”

  “First, let me explain it and then you tell me. Now this is just between you and me, okay.”

  “Sure.”

  “You know Preston is the big cheese now and he was supposed to have this big presentation where he sort of works out the details of the reorganization under his plan.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, he never got it done on time, and the date kept getting pushed back and next thing you know, the final deadline was fast approaching. So

  you can imagine the office was like a pressure cooker and, of course, Preston practically morphed into Pol Pot. I kid you not.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “Then Clara quit because she couldn’t take it anymore, Vera got really sick, poor woman, and that just left me and Preston. We got temps, we tried to hire other people, but no one would stay because of course, no one could stand to work with Preston.”

  “Which would be understandable.”

  “So as the deadline approaches, rumors were circulating that Preston Scott was going to go down. And Even Standoff himself really let him have it. We had a meeting and Standoff just stopped short of canning Preston right there. Then after Standoff had left, Preston just lost it.”

  “He got violent?”

  “Kind of. But not to me or anyone else. I mean, he was literally going to jump out of the window and kill himself.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Deadly so. It was so surreal. About a month ago, I would have been tempted to push him myself. But at that moment, seeing him like that…something happened inside of me. I just couldn’t.... I don’t know how to explain it without sounding all ‘7th Heaven’ corny.”

  “Who cares if it sounds corny. I’m not judging you. Say what you need to say.”

  “Seeing Preston like that…I just understood, because I had been where he’d been. There were times in my life I felt like doing what Preston was about to do. I knew what the suffering was like and I didn’t think anyone should have to feel like that. Not even Preston. I didn’t know what to say, but it was like something spoke to him through me to get him to come down.”

  “Is he okay? Did they take him to a hospital?”

  “No. Nothing like that happened. He took a few days sick leave, but no one knows why. He and I were the only ones there when everything went down, and I didn’t want to make spectacle of it. I don’t think he really wanted to die, he just wanted a way out of his situation. He probably just got so desperate that he freaked out.”

  “What did you say to him to get him to come down?”

  “To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember most of it. But I do remember telling him I would help him with the presentation and that I wouldn’t say anything about what happened.”

  “Really? That’s convenient. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to sound cynical or make light of the situation, but are you sure that he wasn’t performing to manipulate you?”

  “I thought about that afterward. He very well could have been without consciously knowing it, since being manipulative is such an ingrained part of who he is. But that’s not important. I’m not helping him because he’s such a great guy.”

  “You mean you two aren’t friends now?”

  “Hardly. But we have worked out a ‘truce’ if you can call it that. He’s still the same old Preston, but that doesn’t matter. It’s not like I was expecting anything from him anyway. Loving your enemies isn’t about what you’re going to get in return.”

  “So you’ve actually been listening to my dad’s sermons.”

  “And then some. You remember a while ago at Sunday dinner, your dad gave me a word to “love my enemies” so to speak.”

  “I think I do.”

  “Well, when Preston had his melt down, I thought about what your dad said that day, and what you had told me about Christ when he was on the cross praying for his accusers and everything. All of that made me realize why we should ‘love our enemies’.1 We’re all on this planet together. As human beings we have a responsibility toward each other that’s somehow Divine in nature. It was a really deep thing for me to get.”

  “I can tell.”

  “Sometimes I think if I had only loved my enemies from the beginning, I wouldn’t have a lot the problems I have now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I have some confessions to make. I know that I’ve made it sound as if Preston was the bad guy a lot of the time, and there were times when he was, but I didn’t help things. I’ll admit I was jealous because he was popular with a lot of the higher ups. And maybe my jealousy kept me from being the co-worker I should have been. It may have been part of the reason why Preston decided to go after my job in the first place.”

  “This is really new. You sound like a different person.”

  “I know. It’s crazy right. But you know what’s really crazy? There was so much work to be done I thought that we were doomed from the start. I even found myself trying to pray at one point. But little by little, it was like someone was guiding me. I was working 16-hour days, but I wasn’t tired or as exhausted as I usually am. Things just started happening. Just too many coincidences for this to be attributed to dumb luck. And it had nothing to do with me by myself. I know a lot of people in my situation would like to think it was just a little sweat and elbow grease, but this…this…t
his was way bigger than me. You understand right?”

  “Of course, I do. But do you?”

  “I guess you mean that God is doing all of these things. I’ll admit Tamiko sometimes it does seem like it. But then I think, here I am, a person who has never believed on Him or worshiped Him, and then there’s Preston, who probably thinks he’s a god all on his own. Why would God do such great things for us, and someone like Allen, who is trying to commit his life to Him, is working as a janitor? And look at what happened to you even!”

  “First off, I’m starting to learn that being a Christian doesn’t make you exempt from problems. The Bible says ‘all that live godly shall suffer persecution’.2 Sometimes we go through trials that test our faith and make us stronger, other times we suffer persecution from others who don’t understand us. But as a Christian, God is with you in the midst of it all. Secondly, God is merciful. He sends his rain on the just as well as the unjust.3 He hates sin, but he doesn’t hate us. Jesus sacrificed himself not because we were just so great, but because He loved us. He saw us suffering in sin and he wanted to save us.”

  “So you think this is God’s way of getting me to understand that He’s real. Like he wants to save me?”

  “I believe so.”

  Tamiko couldn’t believe her ears. Here was Tim, pondering the possibility that God was real and working in his life. She never thought this day would come so soon and under such circumstances. Tamiko thought that it would take nothing short of bringing Tim practically to his deathbed to get him to believe in God. And yet all it took was an incident at work. It was like when Nathanael believed that Jesus was Messiah simply because Jesus told him He saw him under the fig tree.4

  “Hmmm…I won’t say you’re wrong.”

  Tamiko and Tim talked on until it began to get dark. Before they realized it, it was time for dinner and they had to rush back to the Bynum homestead. When they arrived they could hear the faint voices of those inside through the door. Tamiko was fishing in her purse for her house key when Pastor Bynum opened the door.

  “I thought I heard a car pull up. It’s about time you two got here. I was about to get worried.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, daddy. It’s just that Tim and I were talking and talking and we forgot the time.”

  “I’ll say”, Pastor Bynum replied casting a suspicious glance over at Tim “Well, come on in, everyone’s ready to eat.”

  “Tamiko, where have you been?!” scolded Mother Rose.

  “Tim and I were walking through the park talking…”

  “Dinner should have started at least 20 minutes ago. Next time, please be considerate of our guests.”

  “Yes, momma”, Tamiko said reticently. Then as she surveyed the room, her eyes lit up as she noticed the presence of a special guest. “Davis, you came!”

  “I couldn’t break my promise, right.”

  “Have you met everyone?”

  “It’s okay, Miko, I already did all the introductions”, chuckled Allen.

  “Oh my goodness, I’m so crazy, of course you did. How was the Brotherhood Bible Study?”

  “It was good. I felt like I learned a lot”, Davis replied bashfully.

  “How about you guys continue this conversation over dinner. Cause I’m really hungry”, said Allen interrupting them.

  “Oh, yes. Right this way”, said Tamiko taking hold of Davis arm and leading him to the dining room.

  “Are you okay, man?” Allen asked Tim who was noticeably disturbed.

  “I’ll deal”, Tim replied somberly.