CHAPTER TWELVE
The Blessed One
Arwana’s Perspective
Arwana stuck several quarters into the pay phone and dialed the number that she still knew by heart, even though it had been ten years since she had called it. The phone rang several times before it was picked up and an old voice came on the line, “Hello?”
Praying for courage Arwana spoke, “Uncle Joe, it’s me Arwana.”
The voice on the other end immediately became more personable, “Girl! What’s going on?”
Arwana shook her head berating herself for how she had ignored this man for so long right along with his generosity that she had always been too proud to accept. Gathering herself, she spoke, “Well, actually a lot is going on. I’m married. I’m married to a wonderful Christian man. Someone dad would’ve really liked and respected. I….. I’m not the same as I once was.”
“Yeah, Darling, I can hear that. Honey, please tell me you found Jesus!”
Crying openly into the phone Arwana said with excitement, “Yes! Yes, I did.”
It felt like a mountain had lifted away on the other side of the line if the old man’s voice was anything to judge by as he emotionally said, “Darling you don’t know how much that means to me!”
“Actually, I think I do Uncle Joe. I am so sorry for everything I put you through! I…. I treated you so badly and I….”
“Done and over with child. Now tell me what’s wrong in the moment, I can hear it in your voice.”
“I live up in Canada now. There was a forest fire. It took my husband’s business. It wiped away our home. We don’t have any money really and his leg got broke very badly when a tree fell over on it.”
“Good grief child!”
“Yeah, and to complicate matters more, I am over six months pregnant.”
“Hallelujah!” Rang out on the other end of the line.
Confused Arwana asked, “What?”
“Oh, I don’t mean to make light of your troubles Honey, but I just thought I’d never get to see a grandnephew and well I was wrong.”
Arwana smiled and before she could speak her uncle’s voice sounding so much younger now said, “You still got that card I sent you in the mail a year back?”
Arwana’s eyes closed and she breathed out, “Yes, Uncle Joe, I do.”
“Well, it’s still got the $5,000.00 on it that you’ve never used and that should be enough to get yourself and your man down here to North Carolina as quick as you want or heck take as long as you want, just get here safely do you hear me?”
“Yes, Uncle Joe.”
“And don’t you worry about the future any either. Your father’s half of the farm is still in your name and I done willed my half of it to you over five years ago, so you got a place to come to. You got that?”
“Yes, Uncle Joe. I….. I can’t ever repay…..”
“Oh put a stop to that kind of talk. You’re my family and I don’t want to hear anything else about it. God told me this day would come and I’ll admit I doubted Him, but Hallelujah, let all men be liars and God not be! He keeps His word every time! You’ve made me so very happy Arwana. Thank you for calling me. I know your father would be proud of who you're becoming!”
Crying Arwana held onto the phone and whispered, “I love you Uncle Joe, we’ll be there as soon as we can be. That said, I should probably not drive too much at a time, so give us a week or two to get there.”
“I will do that and in the meantime, I’ll see to your Pa’s house being all set up and ready to go. I’ve taken care of it and the gardens that he and you loved so much. It’ll be just like you remember it darling.”
“Thank you! I need to go tell my man okay, because suddenly all I want to do is come home!”
“I hear ya child. Home is waiting for you. Come along, the lights will be on.”
With reluctance Arwana said goodbye and hung up the phone and then hugged the pastor’s wife who had been standing there hearing most of the conversation, but not saying a word, as she had cried along with Arwana with a smile on her face.
Hugging Patricia tight Arwana cried out brokenly, “I don’t deserve this love my God loves me with! I don’t!”
“None of us do, dear! None of us do.”
Pulling back, smiling and teary-eyed Patricia looked Arwana in the eye and said, “The good Lord surely does work in mysterious ways. You go tell my son the good news and I will get your car for you.”
Arwana blinked and said, “The Jeep was all but toast by the time we got to town?”
“No Honey, your car. That lazy mechanic finally got the parts in and got it fixed last week and before you ask, the bill is already taken care of. Now go tell your man that not only has he got the woman and the baby on the way that he thought he never would have, but that he got the farm too.”
Crying with joy Arwana hurried off to do just that.
*********
The air was warm, so warm. The top was down and Arwana was singing.
She was the one driving at the moment. In fact, she had driven most of the way here as my cast was simply too restrictive in the confined space of the car to be able to comfortably drive with.
As it was sitting in the passenger side wasn’t that much more comfortable, but I wasn’t complaining. We had made the trip to North Carolina more into the longest vacation that I’d never had.
Looking around as the warm wind whipped at my hair I felt completely at peace. God had taken care of everything. I’d never been to where we were going, but it already felt like home.
“Here we are Sugar.”
I turned my attention to Arwana as she turned her blinker on and made a turn onto a graveled lane that led off mysteriously into a majestic forest that rose up all around us like impressive sentinels from eons past.
Arwana gave me a look and taking her sunglasses off, she said, “You’re going to love this!”
Of that, I was sure, as I already did. The driveway came around a knob of up-raised mossy boulders and immediately the panorama of a small enclosed valley was revealed.
Green fields went up to the edges of the forest that framed the most idyllic farmstead that I’d ever seen in my life.
“You were raised here?” I breathed out in awe.
“Yes, I was. It has been and will always be to me the most beautiful place on earth. I left, though because what I cared for most went away. I stayed away because I was too ashamed of myself to return. I come back now without shame and with the love of my life by my side even as the future of this place is being nourished alive within me.”
My eyes met hers and crying and smiling at the same time she gestured to everything, “Baby, this is all yours!”
She looked back to me and shaking my head, I said, as I reached over and took her hand, “Thank you Honey, but I was happy with just you.”
Smiling, she leaned over and kissed me passionately. Pulling back, she said still hovering close to my lips, “I know.”
Straightening up, she started on down the gravel lane. Pointing to one of two houses she said, “That’s Uncle Joe’s house and this Honey, “pointing to another, “is ours.”
Speechless, I remained so as she came to a stop. She opened her door and with a groan got out of the low seated car. I rushed to do the same unhappy with the fact that I hadn’t been the one to open her door and help her out.
That was all I was unhappy about at the moment though. With my own share of awkwardness I got my fully cast leg out the door and pulling myself up I picked my crutches out of the backseat.
Arwana was by my side and rubbing at her belly that was really taking on shape now. “Ready?” She asked. I nodded.
We headed up the pathway to a house I could never have afforded in this life and much less designed as picturesquely as this one was to say nothing of the layered in landscaping of walls and plantings that showcased it off to perfection. It was really a dream come true.
The door of the house opened and an older man came rushing out. I served as a spectator standing quietly on the fringes as uncle and beloved niece made up for ten years of being apart.
Finally the old man turned away from Arwana and came to me. I expected a handshake; instead I got a hug that still had strength to it.
“Thank you my boy!”
A bit embarrassed I said, “I really can’t say that I’m at all behind how things have come to be. God has been the one doing all the doing.”
Drawing back the old man nodded and said, “That may be the case my son, but don’t sell yourself short. He needed the right man for the job and I can easily see that you are such a man. So please accept my profound gratitude and appreciation when I tell you how grateful I am that you allowed God to use you to bring my brother’s girl out of the dark place that she was in.”
I nodded and he slapped me on the back for good measure. Then good-naturedly, he said, “Well, you two no doubt are in need of some rest and want to get acquainted with the place. And so there is no doubt…”, he slapped a folded up paper against my chest that I took to be a deed and said, “… it’s all in your name son, if I might make one special request of the future though my son?”
“What?” I asked, as the shock of the moment since Arwana had told me in the clinic two weeks ago only continued to unravel as a proverbial blessing being poured out over my life.
“Arwana tells me you were a logger. While some timbering is fine and at times needed, please don’t cut all my trees down.”
“I wouldn’t dream of doing that Sir. Truly, I’d much rather be a farmer than a logger any day of the week.”
“Good to hear. I’ll teach you all I know. Leg or not I’ll have you in a tractor seat by Monday morning.”
“Yes, Sir.”
With that the old man made his way off down the path across the verdant pastures toward his own house all the while going with a skip to his feet that reflected the inner joy of his heart in the moment. I glanced away from him to Arwana, only to see her beaming at me.
She spoke, “Thank you, Honey.”
Blinking, I said, “For what?”
“Simply everything.”
Why did everyone keep giving me credit for being me? She didn’t wait for my response, though, but opened the door of the house and gestured for me to come through.
I did, but stopped in the doorway. Laying my hand on the doorpost I closed my eyes even as my other hand found Arwana’s, “God, You give and You take away. You do as you see fit to do and no one withholds Your hand from You performing Your desire. Recently, I thought You were going to take everything from me and that is Your right to do so. Instead, You’ve given me more than I ever asked for and I just want to not only thank You for it all, but to tell You truly in this moment that I know where all my increase has come from and I give You all the glory for every last bit of it! Everything that I have, everything that I am, I give back to You now in this moment. Have Your will and way with me and please help me to be a good steward of all You’ve blessed me with, especially with this woman You’ve given me and a child already on the way. Even so, let Your will be done forever in my life, in Jesus Name, so be it!”
“So be it!” Arwana quietly affirmed.
I stepped inside the house and stopped. Arwana pulled the big wooden door shut behind me.
“So what do you think of the castle, my lord and master?”
Shaking my head, I remained speechless as I truly didn’t have any words. Chuckling Arwana pressed with a hand and I leaned back against the door of what was now my house.
My eyes came to hers and clearly she said, “You bless this home with your presence my husband and now I wish to bless you.”
Her hands undid my pants and before I could protest, she had sunk to her knees before me. The part of me that I think she liked the most at times came alive and husky voiced she whispered, “Welcome to your new home Haynes.”
Shaking my head, I groaned, then as she did what she had become an expert in doing and that was giving me pleasure. As I rested against the door, I couldn’t help but almost immediately orgasm into her loving mouth.
At the apex of my orgasm she slipped her mouth off of me and my seed sprayed across her face. Surprised I watched it drip from her face to splash upon the oaken floor of the house.
My orgasm spent I remained still as she wetly kissed the head of my shaft and licked it clean. Leaning down, she took her hand and rubbed the essence of my spilled seed upon the floor and then up the one side of the doorpost that she could reach.
Looking up at me then with the cream of my seed still wet across her face, she said, “May it be long that the seed of your loins possesses the land and inheritance of my father and his father’s before him. May all your sons come to be fruitful and as just and righteous of heart as you are and let their wives be ever a joy to them and never a hindrance of any kind, even as I ask my God to so make me forever to be your greatest pleasure and soul mate in this life and a companion to you for all eternity if it is permitted.”
I felt the effect of her words and actions and pulling her up I kissed her and in a way it seemed to seal the words that she had spoken.