FORTY
• • •
Once they were on the open road headed north, Jed stole a glance at Abernathy beside him in the front seat and said, “Nice to see you again, Roger.”
Abernathy reached over and squeezed Jed’s shoulder. “You, too, Jed. I’m sorry it had to end up this way.”
“We thought you were gone.”
Abernathy nodded slowly. “So did I.”
“Why aren’t you?”
“I guess they thought I was still useful.”
“They were right.”
Abernathy shrugged, then turned to look at Lilly. “I suppose they were.”
“And Lawrence?”
“He didn’t make it off that mountain.”
“Why did you lead them to us?” Jed asked.
Abernathy looked at his hands, turned to the window, and studied the outside world. “I’m sorry about that, Jed. I am. You have to understand, though, that they would have found you eventually.”
“They?”
“Centralia. I didn’t know Murphy was part of them. He had me fooled too. They were hot on your trail and would have found you. Murphy convinced me that he had a way out, a way for you to be located without an ordeal.”
“Without violence.”
“Yes. It was either be found by him or be taken by force. I knew you wouldn’t want to put Karen and Lilly in that kind of situation, so I gave them your location. I’m sorry.”
“I know. So am I.”
Abernathy put his hand on Jed’s shoulder again. “Jed, I need you to know I never would have agreed to it if I for one minute believed it would have come to all this. I never wanted to put any of you in danger.”
He patted Abernathy’s hand. “No hard feelings.”
The drive to Harrisburg took them nearly seven hours. Lilly slept most of the way, her head resting on Tiffany’s lap. Tiffany remained mostly silent in the backseat. In the front seat, Abernathy proved to be a very talkative man. He spent a good portion of the trip recounting his childhood years to Jed, his military exploits, and his time served in the CIA.
When they got off the highway and onto Front Street, which ran parallel to the Susquehanna River, Abernathy looked at Jed and said, “I’ve been doing most of the talking, haven’t I?”
Jed nodded. “Yes. But I didn’t mind. I’m not much in a talking mood.” In fact, Jed would have preferred to have spent the last seven hours alone in his thoughts. He had a lot to sort through. And indeed, while Abernathy spoke, Jed thought often of Karen, wondering if they would find her at Joe Kennedy’s house. Had she made it there safely? Did Kennedy remember her? Had he agreed to help her? Jed had never really liked the plan from the beginning, but it was all they had. She had nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to.
He also thought of the thumb drive and what they would do with it. How would they ever get it into the hands of someone they could trust? And whom could they trust?
“Do you know why I told you all that?” Abernathy said, pulling Jed from his thoughts again.
“You thought I looked bored?”
Abernathy laughed. “No. Something tells me there’s never a dull moment with you.”
“I wish I could just have a dull life now. Boring sounds really good.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Abernathy rubbed his face with both hands.
They stopped at a traffic light, and Jed said, “So why did you just spend the last seven hours bending my ear in every direction?”
The light turned green and Jed drove through the intersection.
Abernathy sighed. “Jed, life doesn’t always turn out the way we thought it would. In fact, it rarely does. But I wanted you to see how God works even when we don’t know him, when we’re at odds with him, when we’re his enemy. He’s still working. He’s in the background, hooking things up, moving things around, arranging things just so.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“All that I told you —”
“All seven hours of your life story.”
“Yes. All seven hours of it. All that I told you, everything I’ve experienced, all I’ve been through, has led to one moment. Right now.”
“Right now. Here. In this truck.”
“Yes, and back there, at the monument with Lilly, and on that mountaintop with Lawrence Habit, all of it was right now at that moment.”
Jed turned left onto Vaughn Street. Kennedy lived on Fourth, another several blocks away.
Abernathy shifted in his seat so he could face Jed. “Jed, we live life moment by moment and everything in our past, our history, has been preparing us for the moment we’re in. God works in the moments of our life, and everything leading up to every moment is orchestrated by him, part of his plan for our life.”
“Okay. So what does that have to do with me?” He turned right onto Fourth Street. Kennedy’s house was three blocks away. Jed scanned the street, the homes, the yards, looking for anything odd, anything out of place.
“Everything you’ve been through up until now —everything —was leading you to this moment. You. Lilly. Karen. Right now.”
Jed slowed the Acadia and stopped at a stop sign. He looked across the center console at Abernathy. He’d never thought of his life that way. He’d never viewed it as a series of carefully orchestrated happenings where one event built on another and every event led to the next and every event in the past served to prepare him for the event he was currently experiencing. Everything had order, purpose. The good, the bad, the painful, the wonderful . . . it all played its role, it all fit so neatly into the convoluted, complicated cog workings of his life. Jed saw God, not only as creator of the world, but as the sustainer as well, and not just of the world at large, but of each individual life. He saw how every part of his life, even the smallest, fit perfectly together, and how his life fit with those around him, and larger and larger the machine got until you had the whole of human history.
Sitting at that stop sign, no other cars around, Jed closed his eyes and began to weep. He was so small, so insignificant, and yet God cared enough about him to plan his life and orchestrate it down to the smallest part in the smallest of workings.
His soft crying awoke Lilly in the backseat. Tiffany stirred too.
“Dad, what’s wrong?” Lilly asked.
“Just worried about your mom, baby girl.” Jed wiped his eyes and drew in a long, deep shuddered breath. “It’ll be okay.”
“You doing okay?”
“Yes. Are we there?”
“It’s just right down the street here.”
Jed drove through the intersection and two blocks later parked along the curb in front of a two-story brick home with a small grassy yard and wide front porch. The landscaping around the home was neat and tidy, the mulch freshly laid, the shrubs meticulously trimmed. He surveyed the area around the home, the neighbors on either side and across the street. A few homes down, a shirtless man washed his car; farther down the street an elderly man rode a small riding mower in straight lines. Nothing appeared abnormal or suspicious. Just a quiet suburban neighborhood.
“Stay here,” Jed said. He turned to Abernathy. “When I get out, get behind the wheel, and if anything looks like it might go south, get out of here. Get to Front Street, hang a right, and it’ll take you to the interstate.”
Abernathy nodded.
Jed turned more in his seat so he could see Lilly. He reached for her hand. “I need you to pray, okay?”
“I will, Dad. God will be with you. And us. And Mom.”
He squeezed her hand. “Good girl.”
He then looked at Tiffany. “Thank you for your help. Protect my daughter, okay?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
Jed exited the vehicle and casually walked up the front sidewalk of the home to the porch. Brown wicker furniture adorned the porch along with brightly blooming flowers in hanging pots. Jed crossed the porch and stood in front of the door. He had no idea what he’d find on the other side. He had no idea if he’d find Karen or a team of armed men waiting for him. He fisted his hand and knocked sharply.