TEN YEARS EARLIER – Susan and Tommy were asleep in the back seat of the station wagon, dozing after their lunch on the road, as Richard counted down the last few miles to Tarpon Springs, just north of Tampa. Susan was clutching her favorite doll, and Tommy was curled up on his pillow, sucking the two middle fingers of his left hand.
“It shouldn't be too much farther now,” Janet said, holding on her lap both a map and the directions to the Petersons’ home, which Scott had mailed to Richard the previous week.
Richard and Janet had not seen Scott or Cindy Peterson since their wedding, right after their college graduation. Scott was Richard's roommate during their senior year, and Janet introduced him to Cindy, who was one of her sorority sisters. Scott was known on campus as a “wild man,” but he visibly calmed under Cindy's influence, as their romance budded and grew. As so often happened in those days, the two of them were married that June, and both Richard and Janet were in the wedding.
When Richard and Janet were married the following summer, after Richard's first year of law school, Scott was serving in Vietnam, and Cindy was tending to their baby daughter, Lacy, who was born almost nine months to the day after their wedding. So the Petersons were not able to participate in the Sullivans’ wedding. In fact, the two couples had not seen each other for the entire intervening period. They kept up by telephone calls, letters, and Christmas cards. But when Richard and Janet had decided to take Susan and Tommy to Disney World that year, they had called the Petersons, and now they were only a few miles from their home.
“Hey, sleepy heads, time to wake up,” Janet smiled, as she turned around and shook her children.
“Are we at Disney World yet?” Tommy asked, rubbing his eyes.
“No, dear. That will be tomorrow. Now we're almost to our friends’ home, and you'll be able to play with Lacy and Jeff.”
Janet had convinced Richard that this was the year to visit Disney World, since Susan was only in the first grade, and they could take her out of school for a few days without a problem. And they would miss some of the rush that would hit Orlando during the regular days of spring vacation. Richard had made partner in the law firm two years before, and he was finally feeling he could relax every now and then, even though the work load was still tremendous.
He and Janet had their eye on a home on Devon Drive, which was supposed to be up for sale that summer. Compared to their small ranch home in the suburbs, the Devon Drive home offered a much larger yard and a wonderful city park nearby. So Richard was working hard to ensure that his income would qualify for the necessary loan. But Janet finally prevailed on the need for a family vacation, and he was frankly glad to be out of the office for a week with his young family.
They had left Friday morning, spent the night on the road, and now it was Saturday afternoon as they pulled into the Petersons’ driveway in Tarpon Springs. The Petersons bounded out of their front door as soon as the Sullivans’ car was in the driveway, and the four adults embraced and kissed in the front yard. The Petersons’ children were each approximately two years older than Susan and Tommy, but they were soon all playing together in the backyard.
“You look great, Janet.” Scott held her at arm's length and then gave her another hug. “I can't believe we're finally all back together again after so many years.”
“And married life seems to agree with you, too, Richard,” Cindy smiled, patting the slight bulge of his stomach.
“No complaints, no complaints at all,” Richard laughed. “Janet's the best homemaker in the business!”
Richard and Scott unloaded their overnight bags while Janet and Cindy arranged the kids’ sleeping quarters. Soon the four adults were relaxing on the Petersons’ patio, drinks in hand, watching the children running and jumping together, joined now by several of the neighborhood kids.
Scott, who had opened an insurance agency with some friends from his army days, had completely adapted to the casual Florida lifestyle. That evening they grilled swordfish steaks for themselves and hamburgers for the kids, while catching up on almost ten years of news.
“I can't believe how tall Susan is,” Cindy marveled. “It's hard to tell from her pictures. She's almost as tall as Lacy.”
“Jeff has amazingly nice manners.” Janet returned the compliment. “I hope in two years that Tommy is behaving as nicely as Jeff is tonight.”
After dinner, while Janet and Cindy worked on bedding down the excited children, Richard and Scott nursed another round and continued to catch up with each other.
“Remembering you hanging off the balcony at our dorm,” Richard smiled at Scott, “it's hard to picture you married and settled down. You were always the wilder of us, Scott, and I imagined you would be a pilot or something equally challenging.”
“Eyes, Richard. I couldn't ever pass the eye test. So I wound up on the ground instead, in-country Vietnam, and that's where my life really changed.”
“I bet,” Richard said. He had not served in the armed forces because of a high draft lottery number.
“No, Richard, I mean really changed. Cindy and I have a strong faith now, which began for me with an experience I had in those days.”
“What happened?” Richard asked.
“Well, as you may recall, I received a grazing wound in the right thigh.” Scott patted his leg as he spoke. “There's still a chunk missing. It really wasn't that bad, but it got me medivac'd out to a field hospital.
“After my operation, there were six of us in this particular ward. I was the only one from our unit, but the three guys across from me were the only survivors from a patrol the VC had ambushed. In the bed on one end was a white guy who had his right thigh and right hand completely bandaged. On the left end was a black guy whose legs had been shot up much worse than mine. The doctors said he would never walk again. But in the middle bed was another white guy, their buddy, who had his midsection badly torn up and was in a coma. On my second day there, one of the nurses told me that the middle guy—his name was Reese—wasn't expected to live another twenty-four hours.
“Now you knew me in school, Richard. Like you, I don't think I ever darkened the door of a church while we were in college, and I certainly could not boast about my faith then. But it turned out that these three guys were all from the same town—they had played football on the same high school varsity team, and had been active in the Campus Crusade for Christ. And they had all enlisted together.
“Richard, I lay there day after day, night after night, and I watched the white guy and the black guy pray for Reese incessantly. The white guy would kneel on one side and whisper his prayers in Reese's ear. The black guy, who couldn't get out of bed, would reach over and hold on to Reese's arm, and together he and the first guy would pray. The other three of us in the ward started out as skeptical as we could be, and at first we even asked them to keep their prayers quiet, so we could read or sleep. But those two guys never flinched. They told us about the power of prayer and about how the Holy Spirit had already worked miracles in their lives, both back home and in-country.
“Frankly, their prayers were infectious. Within a few days we were all praying for Reese. They talked me into hobbling over with my cane and laying my hands on Reese's head and praying with them.
“Richard, I could not have explained it to you, then. But eight days later, after almost around-the-clock praying, Reese was not only still alive, but he woke up from his coma and smiled. I mean, here this guy was—his whole midsection was spaghetti—and he wakes up and smiles at his buddies!”
Richard noticed that Scott's eyes were becoming moist as he retold the story from nine years earlier. “Reese was in terrible pain, but as soon as he could, he began praying with his friends. Richard, a week later, the black guy got up out of his bed, and with the help of my cane, he walked! The doctors and nurses were flabbergasted. They started calling us the ‘Prayer Power Ward.’ Other men in the hospital began coming to my three new friends and asking them to pray and to lay hands on them. People started being healed, Richard. And just as importantly, they started believing.
“When I saw Mac—that was the black guy—walk, I told all three of them that I'd seen enough. I wanted whatever it was they had, which was not only healing them but giving them such inner strength. They explained to me how simple it was, and that night, with them, I prayed for Jesus to forgive my sins, and I asked Him to come into my life, take it over, and use me as He wanted.”
Richard could not believe what he was hearing from his old fraternity brother. I guess you had to be there to appreciate it, Richard thought silently to himself, but Scott has really gone off the deep end.
“At any rate,” Scott continued, “in that hospital the four of us began a friendship that is still flourishing to this day. In fact, they were from near Tampa, and it was with those three guys that I started the insurance business here several years ago. If you and Janet come to church with us in the morning, you can meet each one of them. And unless you look closely, you'll never be able to tell that they spent many months in Army and VA hospitals.
“So when I say that my life changed in Vietnam, that's what I mean. I thank God every day for the little bit of pain I went through in order to receive such a blessing.”
“Well, Scott, we'd certainly like to go to church with you in the morning,” Richard said, “but we promised the kids we'd get to Disney World as early as possible after spending the night with you. So I think we'd better shove off for Orlando when you guys head to church. But I really appreciate your story, and maybe next time we can make it.”
“Sure, Richard, sure. That'll be great,” Scott said, knowing that it would probably never happen. “Well, let's go in and see how the kids are doing. It must be time for a goodnight kiss or two.”
The next morning the Sullivans packed their station wagon and left for Orlando as the Petersons left for their church. On the way down the interstate, Richard repeated Scott's story to Janet. When he finished, he said, smiling, “Isn't that wild? Imagine. It sounds like something out of a holy roller TV show.”
“Yes, it does,” agreed Janet. “Cindy mentioned their faith and their church several times in our conversation, but I didn't really pick up on it. Isn't it amazing how people can change?”
“It sure is.” Richard shrugged off Scott's experience as some kind of hallucination. But a seed was planted in Richard that might bear fruit many years later.