10

Foxx stared at fall colors through the sliding door. “I’m in fits and starts here, Lord. Despairing. You know that.”

He paused, blinked his eyes, stared in wonder, and then burst out laughing. A smallish squirrel had evaded capture, or caught its tail against a sharp object. Rather than a bushy red duster that served many purposes curling out its back, the spindly-haired tail looked like a sparse feather. For sure, God had a sense of humor and displayed it for Foxx during his turmoil.

He chuckled one last time and closed his eyes. “Sorry, Lord. You made that squirrel and saved its life. You are the Creator of the earth and heavens, plants, trees, and all wildlife. How you did it with a breath is beyond me. One of the great mysteries to me is how You made man from dirt. Created a woman from the first fella.”

Pictures of Pepper entered his mind. He enjoyed the trace of freckles, and the sparkle that now made her eyes shine.

“Does she glow from having her own home, Lord, or due to her exposure to You? Generations later, You still make people and animals. Here I sit in awe and in need. I cry out to You.”

God knew what was going on, but it helped Foxx to say it out loud. He sank his head on to his hands. “My troubles are no secret with You. Nor the truth of my birth, wherever and with whomever. Help me accept the facts of where I started and what I’m supposed to do with that information now. If the article Kitt found refers to me, I was born in Ames, Iowa, rather than Lincoln. My abduction, my birth family’s pain, are they real? Help me work through it.”

Why did it shake his world and matter so much?

“You adopted all Your children, Abba. You are the Father of us all.”

He stood as Pepper drove past. The longing to hear her voice struck as a compulsion. He’d give her a half hour to shake off her day of assembling motorcycle parts. Time crawled as he checked his phone every two minutes. Finally, he made the connection.

“Hello-oh.”

His body sighed at the sound of her voice. “You know, your voice sang when you answered the phone.”

“That’s a first.” Now she sounded hesitant.

“I’m serious. The inflection of your voice has changed, and I love the lilt, the lightness I hear.”

“Foxx, thank you. Such a kind thing to say. Come over and let’s talk.”

He’d already locked the door. His bicycle tires took flight. He wanted to attribute the change in Pepper with Jesus. Oh, if he could remember the joy of life as a new child of God. Striving was gone. Born again in the love of Christ. Mercy and grace beyond description.

That knowledge didn’t make the battles of life stop. Look at where he was this very moment. He leaned his bike against Pepper’s garage, and then prayed on his way to her door. I’m unworthy. Yet You love me. You’ve set Pepper in my life, I believe You’ve called her to Yourself. You alone are worthy of all glory and praise.

A smile met him like none he’d seen on her. Her whole face glowed. She pulled him inside.

“Have you won the lottery or what?”

~*~

“I have a much better story. My life is changed.” Pepper took his lifted chin as a nod for her to continue. “Something happened at church Sunday. I can only say that my soul woke up. The meaning of Christmas is clear to me. Emmanuel, God with us. I can see the truth of the anticipation and all the expectation that goes along with the coming of Baby Jesus.”

Foxx laughed. He took her hands and swung her around.

Pepper beamed. “This will be a Christmas celebration like no other. My dark days are a memory. The love, the sacrifice of Jesus’s blood covers it all.”

He pulled her into a hug. Almost heaven.

“I never want to go back to that place without Him.” She softened into the security, the strength, the hope of his arms.

“We are lost without Him. I’m so thankful He called you to see the light of all He has to give.” Foxx smoothed her hair and then cupped the back of her head. “Christ won the battle at the cross. Once and for all, He buried our sins. I was praying in my kitchen and saw you drive by. I’m so relieved and thankful. But as long as we’re on earth, the spiritual battle continues.”

She gasped. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I forgot for a while what you’re going through. I admire you for being even-keeled. You have every right to feel anger, bitterness, resentment.”

“That negative stuff would do me no good.” He lowered his voice and spoke close to her ear. “I’ve concluded that we choose what to do with tragedy, trauma, trials. We can let the awfulness control us. Or we empower the experience to make us stronger.”

“Wow. Foxx, that’s powerful.” She stepped away and grabbed notepaper and pen to jot down his words.

He didn’t move.

“Have the police contacted your birth family?”

“They’re still working on it. It’s possible the family might have given up hope and relocated.” He took her hand, glanced around and then led her to the breakfast nook. “You know, I could loan you a love seat. With just me, I don’t need two couches.”

“You have a giving heart. My longing for a home of my own has driven me ever since I left that box where I grew up. I can dig into my nest egg for a couch. I need to learn to trust those ‘just in case’ dollars with God.”

She busied herself with tea preparations.

“But look how far you’ve come. You made the choice to do something with your life. You could have stayed where you were, followed the example of your parents. But you are decent and compassionate despite the abnormal place you lived.”

“How sweet.”

“The moment I saw you with the donkeys, I could tell I wanted to know you.”

“Rex and Rhoda are a pair of special creatures.”

“You got that right. If Rex was a cat, he’d purr at your touch.”

Pepper shot him a glance and giggled. She then placed a teabag in each mug and carried them to the table. He blessed her with his compliments. A girl who’d taught herself to read at a Laundromat and library. The adult purpose to fulfill her dream, her passion for a home dressed in Christmas. Her drive to avoid poverty had led her to the place of belief and trust in God and Foxx.

She’d let them both in. Did that make her vulnerable? An evil darkness swept into her mind, along with her father’s words. Trust no one. Do whatever it takes to survive. No one cares or even sees you because you are poor.

Why now? Go away, negative thoughts! What was Foxx saying?

“…thought Kitt and I grew up the same as others around us. I would have never dreamt it was a fairy tale. One comfort, I can get rid of the fear that I’ll inherit my mom’s mental state. Goldie wasn’t my mom. She took me from someone whom I imagine might still mourn for me. And that poor baby-sitter. What did she go through? That is, if they’re all still alive.”

Pepper jumped up, gulped her tea on the way to the sink. “Time to change the subject. Do you see anything in here I’m missing, aside from a couch, or loveseat, if I accept yours?”

He didn’t speak as he tossed his teabag and set his cup next to the sink. He started to his left, bobbed his head up and down as he took in each wall and surface until he sputtered, and then broke out with a laugh. “It’s all you.”

She waited. Their gazes met. Held. Time stood still.

“One thing is missing.” Foxx reached for her hand, caressed each finger, her wrist, traveled up the inside of her arm, twirled around her elbow, the outside.

Her mouth dried. Swallowing didn’t help. She breathed harder. A flock of feathery wings beat a flutter from her heart to her throat.

“Your eyes are like blue lightning.” He traced her hair line. “God made a crown of fire when He colored your hair auburn.”

“Are you spouting poetry?”

“If I could, I would.” As he trailed his fingertips over her chin and bottom lip, he lowered his attention to her mouth. “You inspire me.”

He had to feel her pounding pulse. It deafened her.

“I suggest as soon as you find it, hang a sprig of mistletoe. I wonder what your kiss will taste like. Hot and spicy to match your name, or a hint of enhancing flavor.”

What would kissing Foxx be like? She’d never had the experience.

~*~

Pepper pranced along the edge of the road. Foxx had come within a breath of kissing her. She wanted to skip but had never figured out how.

Rex’s neck stretched out, reminding her of a turtle. She had the urge to bray right along with him. So far in her life, that donkey’s lips belonged to the only other mouth her fingers had ever touched. That comparative thought was enough to make her frown.

How would Foxx’s mouth feel against hers?

Her legs went weak as rain-soaked grass. She tripped, recovered, glanced up the road.

Fred’s old pickup next to the lean-to meant he was there, and explained why Rhoda hung back. Dressed in dirty gray overalls, he exited the lean-to pushing a wheel barrow, and waved at her.

Rex trotted up to the fence. Pepper laughed and smoothed her fingers from base to tip over his soft ears. “Hey, there, boy. You’re always eager for visits. How are you today?”

Rhoda tipped her head Pepper’s way, and ran up to push against Rex.

Pepper filled her senses with the crisp fall air. The taste of dryness, chill of the breeze, sight of colorful leaves, the warm breath of these comical creatures. The surprising softness of hair and skin on the donkeys’ backs. All that surrounded her was a gift from God. She remained at the fence until Fred stopped at her side.

“No need to go inside the pen, I played with them some. Not that I can run much anymore.” He laughed and ran fingers through his bristly gray hair. The sunburst of lines radiating from his eyes indicated his love of life. “Wanna a ride home?”

“Thanks, Fred, but I’ll walk.” She sucked in her bottom lip. “I’m not used to praying for myself, let alone asking anyone else, but could you pray for Foxx?”

“Already do. He’s got a whole lot of stuff to work through right now.”

“You know, then?”

“Yup.” He ran his fingers through that wiry hair that had to be rougher than a donkey with burrs. “I reminded him of what I used to tell young people when they were upset with how they looked.” He chuckled. “Man shoots a lot of swimmers when he gets together with a woman.”

Whoa. What? Pepper backed up a step.

“Out of all those little fishes, God chose you to get through to latch on to the inside of that womb God created. He chose every single human that way. Always makes me feel mighty humble, thinkin’ God chose me.”

She had seen pictures of procreation on the internet. Had never taken fertilization of an egg personally. “That’s quite a story.”

“It sure is. You know Psalm 139? Never doubt God knew you before that little swimmer left your daddy and became a new life.”

Pepper backed up, and the humid heat of Rex’s breath warmed her back between the fence boards.

“Sure you don’t want a ride?” She shook her head and waved Fred on.

Pepper told Rex and Rhoda good-bye and hustled home. What a strange thing to say to an almost-stranger. The picture of all those swimmers, as he’d called them, accompanied her fast stride.

In the driveway, her phone rang. Pink. “Hi, sis. You caught me outside.”

“Hey. You still OK out there in the boondocks, tired of driving so far to work yet?”

“Never. I love it. My old farmhouse isn’t far from Branched Oak Lake. A vineyard east of Raymond is only fourteen miles away. Work is about the same distance. Add ten more miles, and I’m in the middle of Lincoln.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Glad you like it. What about close businesses? Where do people eat and buy groceries?”

“Come on, baby sister, I’m fine. This little town is paradise compared to Unit Seventy-three.” Pepper waited out Pink’s heavy breathing. “Remember how we worked so hard trying to pay rent back when we first went out on our own?”

“I don’t like to think about those days.”

“Yeah, well, God provided all those yuck jobs we had. Like filling grocery store shelves.”

“The way we cringed and wanted to take home the veggies they tossed.”

“Washing dishes. Folding silverware in napkins.”

“Gas station attendant.”

“We learned how to pinch pennies, pay rent, put meager clothes together, and save.” Pepper had told Pink earlier about the donkeys. “At least neither of us mucked out stalls.”

Pink finally laughed. “Like we’d find animals where we lived.”

“You’re still my best friend. I want you to meet Foxx.”

“Is he the reason for how happy you sound?”

“Could be. But I’ve found the best Friend a person could ever have. I found Him in the Bible and at church.”

“Really? You’re going all Jesus on me?”

“Don’t knock Him until you’re introduced. We knew nothing about Him except for references to God in some of the books we read.”

Pink made a rude noise. “Where was this God before we were smart enough to earn decent wages? There is no excuse for the way we grew up. Scared all the time about what could have happened to us. We lived in a box, not a home. Remember how we’d see pictures in the library book stories and read about how people lived? The way we grew up without friends except each other and dreamt of escape?”

Oh, my dear sister, it’s way past time to put it behind you.

Inside the house, Pepper turned on the light above the sink. She walked through to switch on the bedroom lamp and plopped on the bed. She definitely needed a couch. “Listen to me prattle on. Did you call for a reason, sis?”

Pink’s voice was a flat whisper. “I think I saw Mom.”