How long he had been sleeping she did not know. She saw that he had sipped some of the broth and most of the Seven-Up and had made use of his hospital bottle which she emptied and washed out. He stirred as she set it down next to his chair. He opened his eyes and sat up.
“I’m glad you were able to sleep.”
“I was also able to follow Harold’s trail through the Bible. What a ride that was! He’s right. How could we think we were on the right track by ignoring the evil one when Jesus and the apostles were facing off against him and his minions constantly. And do you know what?”
“What?”
“That was Pastor Engstrom’s message too, based on his almost direct experiences in Africa. It’s why he was so eager to see me. He wanted to fill me in on what he considered a huge gap in the picture of my divine vocation which he gave me in 1920.”
“So now you’ve heard it both from Pastor Engstrom and from Harold. Sounds like the hand of God at work. Do you have any idea where to go from here?”
“Well, this is not totally new to me. In my Reedville address I was forced, almost in spite of myself, to reckon with the evil one. And more recently the Lord’s Prayer struck me in the same way. Now, with Pastor Engstrom’s empirical evidence and Harold’s massive scriptural evidence, I’ll have to go somewhere from here. Right now I feel a very strong urge to go to chapel tomorrow morning. It’s the last one this week and probably my last one ever. Will you help me get there?”
“Of course, Steve. We can work that out.”
“May God show me how to make my last days count for Him somehow when so many of my other days counted against Him.”
“We’ll leave early and get there before classes dismiss.”
With that, Mary helped him out of his chair and into the bathroom where he was able to manage on his own. His legs felt like rubber and the stabbing pains in his abdomen were just tolerable.
“I’ll spend the night in the recliner, Mary,” he said before she shut the bathroom door behind him. “I’ve done that a lot lately.”
While he was in the bathroom, she straightened out his chair and furnished it with an additional blanket and a pillow. Then she waited by the bathroom door to help him back into the recliner. Once he was settled into it, she heated up some broth, putting more salt in it this time at his request, and sat with him until he had consumed all the broth that his body could handle, along with two pills for pain. It was getting dark.
“I want to be alert for tomorrow, Mary. Right now I am feeling quite depleted. Would you mind if I lean back and go to sleep? It won’t bother me at all to have you moving around in the house. In fact, it will be a comfort.”
“Sleep is a good idea. I’ll put a school bell here on the side table. If you need me at any time, just ring it and I’ll come. I’ll move the floor lamp over on the left side of the chair where you can turn it on more easily if you need some light.”
“Thank you, Mary. And will you also put the writing tablet and some pens on the side table within reach? I might just need them, too. And then let’s pray the Lord’s Prayer before you turn out the light.”
Steve’s voice tapered off mid-prayer. His “deliver us from the evil one” was the barest of whispers.