Chapter Five
Ann
"Car shopping with dad was a lot fun," thought Ann as they drove home from the city. "Dad is so much more my kind of person than mom. Dad understands that it is natural to consider things from the point of how the affect me. Mom is just so silly, always thinking of others and always wanting me to do the same thing. Good grief, mom deserves the life she has. If she doesn't stand up for herself , then that is her problem.'
Ann really did not feel any remorse for how she had treated her mother, but rather anger that Shelly was not completely on her side in setting up Alice Wilson. Ann knew that Shelly could have been a big help in spreading the rumor if she would do it. But Ann didn't ask her because she knew the answer would be no. Ann felt betrayed. Her own mother, and she knew she could get no help from her.
But car shopping had gone well. He dad had decided to just go ahead and order the car. It was a nice foreign made sports car. They had decided against a convertible. Just a nice two door hard top convertible in white . The hard top was of course removable, and much better than a rag top. A stick shift had been ruled out almost immediately because Frederick was sure women would never be able to drive a manual transmission with any level of safety. Ann really didn't care. It was a really flashy car, expensive, and sure to attract attention. She had decided that while the recent attention she had received at school was not good, that attention in general was good. She wanted more of it. But in the future, she wanted to personally attract the attention, not have some idiot like Alice shove unwanted attention on her.
Ann's thoughts were interrupted as they pulled in the driveway at home. They were surprised to see her brother Mal's Z-71 pick-up in the yard. That was a ridiculous vehicle for Mal to drive, as he never drove in bad weather, and he certainly never drove off road. Furthermore, it was 8 years old now. Shelly had insisted that he be allowed to pick a car for high school graduation and that was what he had picked. He was still driving it.
Shelly and Mal had only arrived home minutes earlier. They had had a very interesting afternoon. Shelly had filled Mal in on the situation with Ann. Mal had filled Shelly in on the situation with Belle and his new found interest in the Bible in general and Bible prophecy specifically.
Ann and Frederick got out of the car and walked in through the garage. The family greeted each other politely and sat down to chat.
Politely, Shelly asked how the car shopping went. She was very tense. Shelly knew Mal was going to tell them about his new interest, and she knew it would NOT go over well with either of them. From Shelly's view point, it had been very interesting. Mal had talked and talked and talked about prophecy. He hadn't made her understand any of it. But she was delighted to see him so interested in something. Mal was exceptionally bright, but sparking his interest in anything had always been an extreme challenge. Things came very easily to him. He spent time learning new things long enough to have a good understanding of how something worked, and then he was immediately bored with it. She wondered if this interest would last. She almost hoped it would.
Sitting down, Frederick suggested Shelly fix them all something to drink. Shelly surprised herself by saying, "Of course, Ann, why don't you come help me. It will only take a minute."
The look of surprise on Ann's face was priceless. Mal managed to keep his face straight, but he was howling with laughter on the inside. Ann never had to do anything. Before Ann could reply Mal quickly said, "Here, let me help you mom. I'm good at fixing buckets of ice tea or coffee. Now if I could just learn to cook."
Malachi
Mal helped his mother with both tea and coffee. He guessed he was just stalling in talking to his father about religion. He also wasn't too sure about how much he wanted to say about Belle. He had told his mother that it had been Belle's idea for him to give the study of Bible prophecy a chance. But he really didn't want to prejudice his father against Belle before he even met her.
"Well dad, what's up with you?" Mal opened the conversation as he handed Frederick a mug of black coffee.
"Well," began Frederick, "I guess your mother told you about Ann's situation.’
Mal nodded.
"We, at least Ann and I, are taking steps to change the situation to Ann's favor. We have been planning how to go about it today. It is actually going to be very interesting. I think it will even be fun. By the way, did you notice Ann's new look? It will go quite well with the new car we ordered today. I know you had to wait until your senior year for the new car, but it is different with girls. They just need everything right now. It seems Ann has been neglected recently and perhaps this will make up for it."
When Frederick said "neglected" he gave Shelly a withering look. Shelly knew he was blaming her for the current situation. Shelly was somewhat amazed to note that her usual cringe when Frederick blamed her for something did not occur.
"His power over me really has gone," she thought with amazement. "That snide remark didn't hurt at all."
"What about you Mal?" asked Frederick. This is an unexpected visit. Is something up with you?"
"Since you asked dad, the answer is yes. I have been doing a study of a subject called Bible prophecy. It is fascinating. I was wondering if you had ever heard of it, or what you thought of it."
"Bible what?" Frederick said in an icy voice. "Do you mean the Bible like people take to church on Sunday and that collects dust sitting on the shelf the rest of the week? That Bible?"
"Well, yes dad, I didn't mean 'Shooters Bible' or something like that. The real Bible, the one claims to be the word of the Most High God of creation."
"Oh for crying out loud Mal, surely you are too old to be taken in by that ancient book of rumors. You aren't into some cult are you?" Frederick asked suspiciously. "Because if you are they are only after your money, and I will put you someplace to be deprogrammed if necessary."
"A cult? I didn't say anything about a cult. I only mentioned the Bible. I have been studying on my own. No one else is involved. There are some remarkable prophecies that were accurately foretold. The fulfillment is exact. For instance the book of Daniel predicted the four major empires of the earth, and predicted that Rome would never actually fall, only become weak. Then it predicted the revival of the Roman Empire. That is happening today in the form of the European Union. It is uncanny."
"Well, it isn't uncanny. It's garbage. Forget it. I don't want to hear another word about it. Surely you didn't come home for the weekend to talk about that did you?"
Mal immediately decided to avoid mentioning Belle. He knew his father would make the connection and hate her before he even met her. Shelly simultaneously decided not to mention Belle either.
"Look son, I know you have your own life to live, but you need to understand something right now. I am still paying for your college. I don't care if you stay in school until you are 40 and have three PHD's. But if you expect me to continue paying for your lifestyle, you will stop this nonsense immediately. Do you understand?" Frederick actually shouted.
"Let's just drop it dad, I only started looking into two days ago. And it has been independent study all on my own. Don't worry about it. Let's watch a movie."
Frederick turned on the television. Shelly took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down.
Ann smirked. "Mal is as dumb as mom," she thought to herself.
Mal thought, "Boy, I wasn't expecting a reaction quite that bad at all. I didn't get a chance to ask him if he had had any religious teaching as a child. I don't even know the religious background on any of my family. But one thing dad must have forgotten. My trust fund has been in my name since I was 23."
Shelly was thinking the same thing. She had originally set it up that both her children would receive full management of their trust funds at 30 or 35, but Mal was so sensible and stable that she had turned his over to him at 23. That was 2 years ago, and Mal had behaved exactly as he had
before he received control of his money. He was just a stable responsible guy. Frederick had no say in that money. And he had stopped any allowance when Mal had received his bachelors degree. "Frederick just likes to yell and threaten," Shelly thought.
Angels of Darkness
"How far and fast will that Malachi Jones go?" Cabiri wondered. Through the ages he had wished many times he had access to the pre-recorded history available in heaven. But of course he didn't have access to those records even before the cosmic war. Based on his observations of humans in the past Cabiri guessed Mal Jones would become a believer, a student of the Bible with emphasis on prophecy, and then a very vocal teacher. Mal was already responsible, stable, and had been searching for "that something missing" for years now. Cabiri was almost certain that was the way Mal would go. There would have to be some thought given to the best way to slow him down, consideration as to what obstacles could be put in the way, anything to at least slow him down, and hopefully neutralize his testimony at some point.
Ann, on the other hand, was doing quite well from his point of view. She was becoming more of a narcissist every day, and Cabiri was certain that she would choose the path to destruction. In the war for her soul, he was confident that he would win that battle. And Frederick was just staying Frederick. A little meaner, which was nice from Cabiri's point of view, but still just an obnoxious bore. The nice thing was Cabiri hadn't even had to work hard on Frederick.
Angels of Light
Raphael was elated with Malachi's progress. An added joy was that Shelly was so receptive to Malachi's interest in the Bible. The written word had never been so readily available to truth seekers in ages past.