A Tale Of True Love

  IN FLORIDA, THE end of September was still hot and oppressive. During the afternoon siesta, when everyone rested until the cool of the evening, Marie and the woman slept with the windows wide open, allowing what soft breeze was there to flow through the house. Unexpectedly a fire erupted in the laundry room from the active dryer.

  As the thick smoke rose filling the house with its acrid, deadly smell, the woman’s sleep became disturbed with dreams of being trapped, unable to get out as the flames growing ever larger, coming closer. Waking in fear, she realized she had been dreaming, but there was smoke in her room. She felt confused.

  Smoke? Where’s it coming from? Looking outside she realized the smoke was in the house.

  Fear gripped her hard as she screamed, “Fire!” and hobbled to wake Marie up, shaking the woman who cared for her. Marie grabbed her cell phone as they both ran through the heavy smoke, coughing.

  Marie continued outside, but the woman froze… transfixed by the flames licking at the laundry room walls. She stared at the dancing light, the hot, burning flames. Flashes of memory stirred of a time trapped in a burning car, of death, and then of a man… a man she had been running from, one who had meant to kill her.

  Suddenly she knew who she was, as her past life flooded back. Coughing and with tears running down her sooty face, she ran from the home as the fire engines came screaming down the dusty road.

  Marie grabbed her, pulling her away from the house, away from the danger and toward the old oak tree near the road.

  The firemen quickly donned their masks and vanished into the smoke filled home, their hoses pulled along behind them. Before long the fire was out and the laundry room lay in ruins, but the house had been saved.

  Outside, near the ancient oak tree with its wide trunk and gnarled limbs, the woman’s heart pounded as the memories continued to flooded back, along with old terrors.

  She turned to her friend and said softly, “I know who I am, Marie. I remember! My name is Sheila Conner and on the day of the accident, I was running for my life, trying to get to the police. I needed their protection and help getting the girls out. My husband was going to kill me and I knew he meant it… that look of hate and determination in his eyes,” she said as tears fell and old hurts resumed.

  Abruptly she recalled the snapshot and all the years of wondering, “The girls are mine, the ones in that photo. Their names are Jodi and Candice… my sweet, sweet girls.”

  Then a look of shock replaced her joy. “That was ten years ago! What’s happened to them? I’ve got to find out!”

  Grief and regret welled up in her heart as she cried for the lost years and her inability to help her children. It was breaking her heart.

  “Is there someone you can call?” Marie asked, understanding too well that this woman was probably going to leave her now… to go back to the life she’d lost.

  Sheila tried to think. “I could call Bess. She’s my best friend in Brandon Creek. Yes… that’s the town we grew up in. She’ll be able to tell me about the girls. Oh, I hope they’re alright.”

  The sun was setting by the time the firemen left and the women were allowed back into the house.

  “I’ll start cleaning up this mess, while you go make your phone call,” her friend offered.

  Sheila had a look of hope, but fear prevented her from moving, “When I call, it will open a portal to my old life. One I’m not sure I’m ready to open. He’s probably still there, you know. But, I have to know about the girls, don’t I?”

  “Yes, call your friend,” Marie told her gently.

  Picking up the phone, Sheila requested the phone number of the Brandon Creek Clinic.

  Bess should still be working. But, what if she isn’t there anymore? What if she’s married and has moved away? It’s been so long… No… She has to be there, she’s got to be there!

  With her heart beating fast and her fear rising of the unknown, and the real possibility she was exposing herself to danger, she dialed the number.

  It rang three times, the seconds dragged on… extending the time in her mind. Sheila wondered if Bess was gone, not at work, wasn’t going to answer.

  “Brandon Creek Clinic,” a professional voice spoke into the phone.

  Sheila’s heart fluttered, then she asked softly, “Bess?”

  “Yes?”

  “It’s Sheila, Sheila Conner.”

  Silence came from the other end of the phone.

  “It’s a long story, Bess. There was a bad accident and my memory was erased, until recently. I’ll tell you all about it sometime, but I’m calling about the girls, I need to know if my children are all right? How are they? What happened to them?”

  “Sheila, is it really you?” the voice on the other end sounded incredulous. “I thought he’d killed you and Pastor Andrew.”

  “Pastor Andrew!” Sheila’s heart quivered in dread. “What about Pastor Andrew? Isn’t he there?”

  “Oh Sheila, he disappeared the same day as you did. Most think he went away with you, but I never thought so. I’ve always believed that Braxton had killed you both. I’m so glad I was wrong, at least about you.”

  “The children! What did he do to the girls?” Sheila asked, terrified.

  “They’re fine, Sheila. They’re just fine. Stanton and his wife Jean have them.”

  “Stanton? Stanton’s married?”

  Bess softly laughed, “Yes, he came home a few years after you disappeared, with a wife and two little ones. Where are you?”

  “In Florida,” Sheila told her.

  “Florida! Good heaven’s girl, Could you have gone any further from here?”

  “I’m with a friend… But Bess, I want to come home, to see the girls, to tell them what happened and that I love them. I never meant to leave them and so much time has passed!” she said, choking on her pain.

  “Sheila, you can’t,” her friend said firmly. “It’s too dangerous. Nothing has changed. You don’t know what he’s been like since you left. Stanton was able to get the girls away from him, and he’s finally resigned to it. But I’m afraid of what he might do if you came back, how he’d react…”

  Suddenly she spoke quickly, lowering her voice. “I hear a car door. I think someone’s coming. We can’t talk about this now. Not in this small town where it might get back to him. Give me your number and I’ll call you as soon as I get off work, in about an hour or so… Hello, Mr. Townsend. I’ll be right with you,” Bess said, as the elderly man walked into the clinic.

  “Bess, if this phone number gets into the wrong hands…”

  “Yes, of course I understand. I’ll see to it Mrs. Smith,” her friend stressed the new name she was giving Sheila.

  Sheila smiled. Her friend was going to help her and keep her safe. “Call me when you can, and be sure you’re alone… Oh, I know you will be… it’s just that I’m so scared, even now, thinking of what Braxton might do to me, or the girls.”

  “I understand. I’ll be sure to take care of it, Mrs. Smith,” Bess continued in a professional tone.

  “Oh, how I’ve missed you! Call me. I’ll be here, waiting,” Sheila said as she gave her best friend the link to her life so far away and hung up.

  Sheila saw Marie waiting. She realized that here was another good friend. One who had given so much to help her and could still be counted on to do so.

  “At least the girls are alive and well,” Sheila informed her with relief in her voice. “They’re living with my husband’s youngest brother, Stanton and his wife. Even though Bess told me they’re fine, I’m going home. I have to see them, to know they really are all right. Jodie must be sixteen by now and Candice fifteen. Oh, why didn’t I take them with me? Why didn’t I work out a way of getting them out of there?”

  “They probably would have died in that accident, if you had,” Marie told her gently.

  Sheila was shocked by the idea, but nodded her head in agreement, saying softly, “Yes, trapped in that burning car… At least they’re safe and not with their
father.”

  Sheila continued to share her past with her friend, remembering, “I knew he was upset that day. But I didn’t realize how badly until I peeked around the corner of the kitchen and saw him loading his gun, cussing and cursing, vowing he was going to end this once and for all. It was about 4 o’clock in the morning. He’d received a phone call, hours earlier, but I didn’t know who it was or what it was about. It started him drinking and stewing all night. I’d never seen him like that before. I heard him muttering to himself. He thought I was having an affair with Pastor Andrew!”

  Then Sheila looked at her friend, telling her, “I can’t believe that good, kind man is gone, Marie! Bess told me he disappeared the same day I did. I have a horrible feeling that Braxton had something to do with it. I’m so scared of him. I knew he meant to end it that day and that I couldn’t reason with him.”

  “Even before that night, he wouldn’t ever listen. He was insanely jealous… with any man that looked at me. He just wouldn’t believe I had been faithful all those years. I never gave him any cause to be jealous. But he was… brutally so!”

  “There was that Christmas night he almost killed Stanton, his own brother, raving and drunk, accusing the poor boy of being with me behind his back, when it just wasn’t so. It’s a miracle Stanton lived, and I didn’t get out of it unscathed either. He passed out before he was done with me.”

  “I’m afraid… afraid of what he might do if he catches me, Marie, even after all this time. He told me once about a dog he had as a child, one that he loved and that had loved him. But his father found the dog inconvenient and didn’t want to keep it anymore, so he had it put down. It broke Braxton’s heart. Years later, Braxton took his revenge by poisoning his father’s dog. It frightened me how coldly he told me, smiling with his triumph and revenge.”

  “He wasn’t always that cruel. He was quite nice and fun loving in the beginning, before his jealously changed him in horrible ways. Once, he lost his temper so badly, I ended up in the hospital, viciously hurt. He threatened to harm the girls if I said anything to anyone.”

  “Is that why you didn’t go to the police?” Marie asked, shocked by the brutality of the man.

  “Yes. He was proud of his girls. He had never harmed either of them, wasn’t threatened by them, but I couldn’t take the chance that he wouldn’t hurt them if he felt pushed. His pride and control over us was all he cared about. I tried so hard to please him, to keep us safe and provide a happy home, but I was always terrified of upsetting him,” Sheila said as the old fears started to grow.

  “That morning I knew he was out of control. I quickly ran to our bedroom, dressed, grabbed my favorite photo of the girls, my purse, and jumped into our car, heading out of town and down out of the mountains.”

  “I was so tired of the fear, so tired of hurting, and so desperate to find a way out.”

  “I knew I couldn’t stay in Brandon Creek. He’d have hurt anyone I took shelter with. It was a long way to the nearest city, where I could get to the police and help. I’d been crying most of the way. That’s probably why I went through that red light. I’m just so glad no one was killed. You know the rest,” she finished.

  “Do you think he could have changed after all this time?” Marie asked.

  “He was a bully then, and he most certainly must be one now. When you’ve become that cruel, that mean, you can’t ever be anything else, can you?”

  “I believe you can change, with God’s help, with His love and His forgiveness. He reaches down, deep inside a person and takes out the ugliness and disease of sin, providing His healing love, if you want it. It’s done all the time and even for those who are that bad, if they truly allow Him into their hearts and seek His forgiveness,” Marie said with all her faith.

  “That would be wonderful. But I could never trust him again. You understand that, don’t you?”

  “Of course… anyone who has suffered as you have has a right to be afraid. It would take a great God indeed to bring about such a change in either of you. And I believe He is that great. Just give Him and time a chance to make it right.”

  Sheila nodded, then firmly vowed, “I’m scared to go back, Marie. But, I didn’t willingly abandon my girls then and I won’t do it now. I’ll die before I’m separated from them again.”

  “Let see what your friend Bess has to say when she calls. We’ll think of a way you can see them.”

 

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