I WAS LOST

1959

I WAS LOST !

OLD BLACK PHIONE BY DOUG   CREATIVE COMMONS    WWW.FLICKR.COM

      “Who was that on the telephone?” my mom asked.

       “It was Uncle Rollie. He invited us to come to church on Sunday,” answered my dad.

       “Oh,” said my mom, “what did you say?”

       “I told him, yeah, we’d come.”

       “Okay,” She said.

When I heard we were going to church my spirit leapt within me!

          Early Sunday morning at 8 o’clock Mom woke me and my brother up. She told us to get up and get dressed for church. I climbed down the ladder from the top bunk and ran to the bathroom to pee first. Then I waited in the bedroom for eight year old Timmy to go pee so I could dress real fast without him seeing me. I brushed my unruly curly hair and bobby pinned the sides back behind my ears.

OLD WHITE SINK BY COLLEEN  CREATIVE COMMONS   WWW.FLICKR.COM

          Our small, third floor apartment in the Lenox building was quiet except for the bathroom door clicking open and shut, the flushing of the toilet and someone  brushing their teeth and spitting.

I poured milk over my bowl of cereal and sat down at the red kitchen table to eat. The slow Oakley city traffic outside our apartment building was practically nil this early in the morning. When I finished eating my cornflakes I still had a lump of anticipation in my throat...

BOWL OF CORNFLAKES   RICHARD A CARABALLO   CREATIVE COMMONS  WWW.FLICKR.COM

     ... I  wondered what was going to happen at this church.

          By 9 o’clock we were heading toward Deer Park Baptist Church in our two-toned green Buick. The only noise inside the car was Dad's loud Old Spice cologne.

         As we drove city mile after city mile we passed store front churches, clap-board houses, runned down stores and scary neighborhoods.  I remembered I had been to only two churches in my life. One was Saint Cecilia Catholic Church with my Aunt Sue in a funny hat.  She said I had to wear something on my head before we could go inside. She rooted through her purse and found an unused crinkled tissue. I felt conspicuous every time the tissue fell off my head when we bowed our heads a half dozen times to pray. Aunt Sue and I got tickled and had to leave before church was over.

ST. CECILIA CATHOLIC CHURCH OF OAKLEY   PHOTO BY KATHY STORRIE   7-26-2014

ST. CECILIA CATHOLIC CHURCH SIGN IN OAKLEY    PHOTO BY KATHY STORRIE   7-26-14

          The second one was a Baptist church in Oakley. A thirteen year old girl named Bobbie from the apartment below us invited me. I liked dressing up with my white lacey gloves, patent leather shoes and purse. My purse held a pack of gum, a dime for the offering and a tissue, just in case, for my head. After my fourth visit to Sunday School I received a small blue Bible. I stopped going to that church because nobody hardly came to Sunday School including the teacher.

            When we finally arrived at the Deer Park Baptist Church Uncle Rollie met us with a big smile. He took me to meet Mrs. Youngblood who taught the Bible to fifth grade girls. Her white bun fit neatly under her flowery hat as she taught us eight girls. I wasn’t sure why Mrs. Youngblood kept teaching from her big Bible about the blood of Jesus so much. I thought it had something to do with her name. Every Sunday the blood of Jesus was making more sense in my head but my heart was so heavy.

HEART BIBLE BY HONORBOUND   CREATIVE COMMONS   WWW.FLICKR.COM

          After six months of going to Deer Park Baptist Church there was a big Revival. I was sad when I heard our regular preacher, Brother Pinson. wasn’t preaching. Instead, his dad preached loud every night for a week and I didn't understand a word.

         The piano playing and the choir specials were wonderful! Fifteen to twenty of us children ran up front of the whole church to sing kid Bible songs with hand motions. The people loved us by clapping and shouting Amen! I had never felt so happy and accepted by so many people!

         One night at the church revival during the invitation I asked my cousin, “Why are people going up front and crying?” She wagged her head with her finger on her lips for me to be quiet. Something special was going on and nobody was explaining. The next night when the altar call was made I felt something tugging at my heart. I stepped out into the isle and was drawn to the altar.

          An adult talked with me about Jesus being the sinless Son of God who came to die for my sins on a cruel cross. I said I already knew that and I truly believed it with my whole heart. He asked if I wanted to ask Jesus to forgive me of my sins and come into my heart. I said yes and he lead me to the Lord with a wonderful prayer.  

          Immediately, a heavy burden was lifted off my guilty heart! I felt so happy so deep down in my heart that I couldn’t stop crying. I felt like a freed bird from a cage!

 BIRD CAGE EMPTY BY AJARI   CREATIVE COMMONS    WWW.FLICKR.COM

            As we pulled out of the church parking lot I heard mom and dad whispering, “She’s too young to know what she did at the altar.” When I heard it I knew they were wrong but I said nothing. I would have to show them through my actions that I knew what I had done.

I had known for a long time something was missing in my life; and now I knew the something was someone… Jesus.

JESUS WITH LITTLE ONE BY FREESTONE WILSON     CREATIVE COMMONS       WWW,FLICKR.COM

 Now I didn't just have Him in my head but He was living in my heart, too.

I was lost but now I was found on March 11, 1959. I was eleven and a half years old and so happy beyond my wildest dreams. I couldn't stop telling people about what happened to me!

That was 55 years ago and I still feel excited about having Jesus in my heart and in my daily life. I love His Word and sharing it. He is everything I wanted and much, much more.

Have you asked Jesus into your heart, yet? It's not too late. He's only a prayer away. 

Maybe you just want to learn more about Him.

Click the comment section and let's talk :)

WHEN PIGS FLY

Flying Pigs by Brad Smith   Creative Commons   flickr.com

Going to gym class twice a week was not enough for a hyperactive child like me. I made up for it on snow and rainy days during recess. On Tuesday and Thursday I wore my gym suit under my dress. Mr. Climber, gave us an unwanted lecture on health before gym. Ug!

 

When we were dismissed we ran to the changing room where our dresses flew off our heads. I needed to improve my gymnastic skills if I was going to compete in the athletic event at Withrow High School!

 

 When our teacher blew his whistle we ran to our stations. The bars were my favorite. I planted my hands eighteen inches apart on the bar. I blew out a deep breath and swung my legs up over my head unto the bar. I worked to straighten my pudgy body for visual effect.

 

 I slowly came forward and my body cleared the bar. My hands took on my full body weight as I pulled my knees close to my chest. I eased my pointed toes down to tip the mat. My stomach quivered as I lifted my knees through my shaky arms. Quickly, I hooked my legs over the bar. Whew!

 

Swinging back and forth I flew off the bar and landed on my feet twice.  My hands rested on the small of my back. I took a bow and strutted off the mat. I think I did okay.

 

The whisle blew and I ran to the next station. I watched with envy as my comrades shot up the twenty-five foot metal pole to ring the bell and slide back down. It was my turn. The great, enemy gravity pulled as I lifted my body. My sweaty legs kept sticking to the metal pole. I never made it to the top. I did terrible.

 

I loved taking turns on the extra-long tumbling mat. My cart wheels, somersaults, hand stands and back bends weren't perfect but fun. This was my element.

 

Mr. Climber lifted the shorter kids up to the wooden rings.  I felt embarrassed when he had to lift me up each time I fell off.

 

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon in spring when eighty of us children from Oakley Elementary School walked the mile to Withrow High School. We laughed and sang songs along the way.

  The Ants Go Marching One by One...

Green Ants Silhouette  by Kasi Metcalfe     Creative Commons   www.flickr.com

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah! 

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants go marching one by one, the little one stopped to suck his thumb.

And, they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out, of the rain!

Boom, boom, boom!

* * *

 

Later, that afternoon I competed with the Broad Jump. Mr. Climber was impressed a few weeks ago I could jump over six feet. I stepped on the slightly elevated wooden box and make sure my toes didn’t hang over the front edge. I didn’t want to be disqualified over something stupid.

 

  Ready...Set…Jump!

With every ounce of gusto I could muster I jumped. My body barely lifted through the air. I felt like a 500 pound pig in slow motion. When my feet hit the pavement my butt hit my heels and I fell backwards. The wagging heads and pitiful moans of the onlookers shared my humiliation.The day I become a gymnast will be, "When pigs fly!"

Blank Airport Flying Pig  by Ian Burt    Creative Commoms   www.flickr.com

 

“When pigs fly” is a sarcastic comment used in Cincinnati, Ohio where pig farmers used to export millions of pigs down the Ohio River to be slaughtered. The comment probably started when someone asked, “When are you going to stop shipping  pigs?”

The pig farmer probably said, “When pigs fly!”

 

THE END

Take Aways

Some things kids are good at are just for fun, not a future career/job. 

God can use our failures to help us move on and find our way.

Telling a child they can be anything they want to be is a lie.

 

One Thing I'm Glad I Didn't Do

1954

One Thing I'm Glad I Didn't Do

I moaned into my pillow when the dull pain woke me up again. I slept on a roll-away bed in the hallway between the living room and the one bedroom where my parents and brother slept. Mom must have heard me thrashing in my bed because she was already rubbing my legs with rubbing alcohol.

Equipment by Tyler  Creative Commons   www.flickr.com

Old Dr. Dauche wore a black dress, a grey bun, a stethoscope, and wire spectacles. Her wiry grey hair stuck every which way but Sunday. She told me to open my mouth wide and say, “aw”, while she pushed my tongue down with a big popsickle stick. She was frowning.

On the way home Mom was quiet. I enjoyed the city sights on the bus ride back to Oakley. That night my legs hurt worse and Mommy gave me a baby aspirin before she rubbed them. She said the poison dripping from my infected tonsils was causing my legs to ache. A few days later Mommy and Daddy took me to the hospital.

Surgery Waiting Room by Paul Swansen   Creative Commons   www.flickr.com

At the hospital I read books and colored with five other children who were also having tonsillectomies. Every thirty minutes a nurse came for the next child. I would go last because my last name was Wilcox. After the last kid left and thirty minutes passed nobody came for me. After another thirty minutes my mother asked someone what was taking so long. We found out they forgot me.

 Waiting so long I became thirsty but I still wasn't allowed to drink. The nurse finally came and walked me down a long, winding hall. My gown flapped open behind me making me cold so Mommy closed the gap with bobby pins. The people and the operating room were all in white. I climbed the step up to the white table and they told me to lie down. Somebody covered my mouth with a cup and I soon saw stars swirling from a black hole before everything went black.

Hospital Hallway  by Mike   Creative Commons   www.flickr.com

A few hours after surgery my eyes fluttered open. My throat was on fire! Mommy held out a spoon with ice chips but the coldness made my throat hurt more. My one night in the hospital seemed like a week. The food service lady offered me ice-cream but I couldn’t bare anything on my throat.

My leg aches never came back. It took longer for my throat to feel better.For some reason I was having trouble breathing through my nose. Mommy said they had to remove my adenoids and the healing process would take longer. I heard that my older cousin, Janet, had the same operation with the same doctor and she couldn’t breathe through her nose either.

Automatically, I became a mouth breather because my nasal passage stayed swollen all the time except outside in the frosty winter. Years later after I was married a blind girl asked me why I snorted so much. I didn't realize I was snorting at all.  I finally set up an appointment with a nasal doctor. Maybe scar tissue was left from the tonsillectomy but the doctor said he saw very little scar tissue. That was on a Friday so he set me up for an X-ray on Monday.

The next morning on Saturday I woke up feeling nauseous. Every time I tried to vacuum I got dizzy. I thought I had the flu. While I  rested on the couch I heard the Lord tell me in my mind to take a pregnancy test. It didn't matter I was 45 years old. I sent my hubby to Kroger’s to get one.

Actual Kroger pregnancy test showing I was pregnant.   1993

This was my second or third time to test myself in 20 yrs. so I was shaking like a leaf. When I read positive on the pregnancy test I almost fell off the toilet. My hubby said to get a true test with my gynecologist. I agreed and called Dr. Aarom and he said to come in right away that day. He did not want me to get a X-ray on Monday if I was pregnant.

My excited sister, Kim, and her daughter, Jackie, met me at the doctor’s office. We waited and when five smiling nurses lined up we knew something was up. Together they said, “Mrs. Storrie, you are going to have a baby!” We hugged and cried and laughed. I took the pregnancy test home to show my "doubting Thomas" husband. He couldn't stop smiling.

 That afternoon I happily canceled the X-ray test. I was so thankful I obeyed the Lord. The destroyer was up to no good as usual but greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I love you, Jesus; our son is twenty now and such a blessing. Yeah, I'm still breathing through my mouth and snorting.

I'm glad God still speaks to His children today in a still small voice.

1Sam.3

1. [9] Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Tom (Sandy), Bryce (BJ) and Kathy Storrie in 1997

Tammy Sue

TAMMY SUE

Tammy Sue Wilcox

When Tammy Sue Wilcox was born, November 30, 1958, I was ten years old and in the fifth grade. We named her Tammy because we loved the song, Tammy’s in Love, by Debbie Reynolds. The hospital wouldn’t let Mommy take her home, yet, because she was a blue baby. Mommy said it meant their blood was different so the doctors needed to watch her. I couldn’t understand why the doctors needed to stare at my sister for a week.  After a week Mommy was still recovering so Daddy allowed me to help bring Tammy home.

On the ride to the hospital in our two-tone green Buick I was nervous and excited. Neither Daddy nor I said a word. I had never seen a blue baby before. When we drove up behind the hospital five nurses came out the door and one was holding a baby. Each nurse kissed the pink bundle goodbye while Daddy opened my car door. Tammy was placed in my arms by a nurse who was smiling but her eyes were teary. She kissed Tammy one more time and said all the nurses had fallen in love with her. I loved Tammy’s rose bud lips as she slept. She had lots of dark, wavy hair and she wasn’t blue at all.

I was frozen in my seat on the drive home. I didn’t want to wake my new born sister if I moved. My arms were going numb but I stayed still. She was so beautiful and perfect as she slept peacefully in my achy arms. I was happy I finally had a real sister.

Tammy Sue had two mommies. After school I fed her, changed her and sang to her as I rocked her in the big rocker.  I sang every kid’s song I knew from church while she would cuddle and go right to sleep. I sang: Deep and Wide, I Met Jesus at the Cross Road, I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land, The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock, Jesus Loves Me, This Little Light of Mine, If the Devil Doesn’t Like it He Can Sit On a Tack, and Everybody Ought to Know Who Jesus Is.

Tammy at 2

At two years old she communicated in her own language. She couldn’t say she wanted a drink so she made swallowing sounds with her throat. I remember her sitting on a can of Premium Crackers while she watched television. She was always a very good baby and she made do with whatever was handy.

We didn’t know Tammy had found a ball of butterscotch candy until she started choking. I yelled for Mom to come quick. She ran and turned Tammy upside down and shook her. The candy flew out of her mouth. Mom held her for a while until she calmed down and stopped crying. Whew! That was a close call for our little Tammy Sue.

 Tammy is a no nonsense person who has no time for silliness or wasting time. Her philosophy is not to blab about a project until you’re blue, just do it! As a second grader she could solve problems beyond her years. I asked her one day how she knew so much she said, “I learned it in my “Think and Do Book” at school, silly. After that I knew who had the brains in the family!

Tammy and big sis Kathy

 Tammy jokes all the time that she was switched at birth. She thinks it happened when Mom left her at the hospital for a week.  For some reason she doesn’t feel like she belongs to our family. She says she doesn’t look like us, think like us or act like us. We tell her we’re sorry she got stuck with us.

Tammy's senior graduation picture 1977

Tammy married a wonderful Catholic boy named Donny Blankenship. (In high school my dad made me call off my date with a Catholic boy.)  Tammy was not only allowed to date a Catholic but she was allowed to marry one. (My dad had changed a lot.)  Because Tammy invited Donny to our church he realized he wasn’t saved so he got saved and became a Baptist. He is one of the most faithful Christians I know.

Donny and Tammy Blankenship's Wedding Day

Tammy and Donny found the ranch home of their dreams with a wood shed for Donny who is known as the wood and garden man. Tammy has worked different jobs through the years and her greatest accomplishment is her beautiful rose bushes, trees and flowers all around her home.  

Tammy can make anything grow bigger and better.

My sister, Tammy Sue, was just diagnosed with cancer last week. Our family is devastated and sad but hopeful for her healing. Donny needs her. Her children need her. We all love and need her. Please pray for Tammy Sue as she starts her treatments soon.

Tammy Sue Blankenship

 The “C” word scares us. Maybe that’s why God gave us three

better “C” words like:   

“CAST all your care upon Him for He CARES for you.   I Peter 5:7

Then Jesus called His twelve disciples together, & gave them

power & authority over all devils, to CURE diseases. Luke.9:1

 

 

Before Lorraine Came

1958

BEFORE LORRAINE CAME

OAKLEY A SUBURB OF CINCINNATI ON MADISON RD.  PHOTO BY KATHY STORRIE   7-26-2014

 

I didn’t know what a bosom friend was until Lorraine showed up one day in my fifth grade year. I had been hoping for a close friend to play with.

 

 Before Lorraine came I had played with several neighborhood girls but our friendships didn’t last. I spent a lot of time at the school yard playing hopscotch, climbing trees and climbing on the top of the Kindergarten building to walk around on the flat roof. Usually I rallied kids to play four-square ball.

 

LENOX APT. BLDG HALLWAY. WHERE I MET LORRAINE  PHOTO  BY  KATHY STORRIE  7-26-2014

Lorraine introduced herself to me in the hallway of my apartment complex. She was talkative and friendly so we soon became friends. Like me she had a younger brother so we introduced them to each other so we could be free of them but, Tim and Ben didn’t like each other. I sorta felt sorry for Lorraine because she and Ben were daily on their own after school due to her parents’ heavy work schedule. She was a little envious I had a stay-at-home mom.

 

Before Lorraine came I had few friends. I deliberately over-achieved in the classroom to get the verbal praise from my teachers. My dry soul soaked up their smallest compliment like rain on a hot sidewalk in July. I had no clue that living in the roach infested Lenox building set me apart from the other kids. My hopes sailed when a Judy asked me to meet her and Donna after lunch to play kickball! I waited all  recess at the kickball field but they never showed up. Later, Judy said with sincerity she was sorry they forgot to play with me.

 

20TH CENTURY THEATER IN OAKLEY ACROSS FROM LENOX BLDG.  PHOTO BY KATHY STORRIE 7-26-14

One late afternoon Lorraine asked if I’d like to go to see the movie, THE FLY, at the 20th Century Theater across the street. She and her brother would eat at Frisch’s Restaurant first if I wanted to come. I asked my Mom and all she had was a quarter. When Lorraine and Ben ordered their food the waiter waited for me to order. The smell of the food was tempting but THE FLY was calling. I told him if I ate I couldn’t see THE FLY so just bring me a Coke. Soon, he returned with a Coke and a Big Boy and said they were on the house. I had never tasted anything so delicious in my whole life!

 

Before Lorraine came I met Tessie while riding my bike past her house on Markbreit Ave. We played at her house mostly because my place was… embarrassing. I loved her bright, yellow bedroom that had no boy stuff in it. For fun we played a blindfold game and she led me around the back yard; a rusty nail sticking out of a wood plank snagged my leg. I hated the tetanus shot. For some reason Tessie and I stopped playing together. 

 

  Lorraine’s beauty and charm attracted the boys while her temper scared them away. I was glad she never yelled at me. I never dreamed a blue-eyed angel with golden hair could get so mad  so fast. Bobby Nelson was the most wicked boy in the neighborhood until he met Lorraine! Every mean bone and sinew in his body melted when she rode on his bicycle handlebars. I hated tagging along behind them on my bike and sharing Lorraine with the devil!

 

After Lorraine came I had much more confidence in myself. Lorraine told me I looked like Elizabeth Taylor but I told her I had ugly teeth. I turned my upper lip inside out and showed her my Dracula fangs. She wouldn’t listen and insisted that my gorgeous eyes and black hair were to die for! I loved her for saying that!

 

When school was out Lorraine and her family moved away. My heart was broken and I cried myself to sleep. In mid-summer she invited me to visit at her brand new house for a week. We talked and shared our dreams for the future. She already had a boyfriend which didn't surprise me. Lorraine tried to set me up with her boyfriend's friend but I was too shy and not ready for a blind date.

 After Lorraine left it was harder for a wolf to  blow my house down. I felt more confident … and less invisible. She taught me to speak up for myself. When I got bullied everyday on the way home from school I warned the big boy to stop. When he didn’t calling me names  I kicked him in the rear end. After that he called me "big foot" for the rest of the school year but he left me alone.

 

After I finished sixth grade my family and I moved to Hamilton, Ohio. Lorraine visited me the same week we had Vacation Bible School and she went and got saved. Now we were both two less casualties! When she went back home and didn't answer my letters we lost touch. A few  years passed and I got  her wedding announcement.

 

 Did someone special ever come in your life and save you? I was so happy and thankful to God to have Lorraine when she came into my life. She was like a breath of fresh air and exactly who I needed. After the wedding announcment we went our separate ways and that was okay. I went off to college and seminary and she got married and started a family We didn't talk again until many years later. She will always be my very first best friend.

 

 

My Million Dollar Baby From the Five & Ten

1946 - 1947  

          Nineteen year old Marie stretched her long legs beneath the seat in front of her as the hilly country side whizzed by outside her bus window. She had counted two hundred barns since leaving “down home”. The sad look in her mammy’s blue eyes still lingered in her mind. Marie and her older sister Susie were the last two of the fifteen kids born to Fannie and Wilke Lawson of Stony Fork, Ky. It was time for them to fly the coop and see what the big city had to offer.

 

          The last six months of teaching in the one room school house was not Marie’s cup of tea. Teaching kids how to read, write and do arithmetic was plain boring for the five foot-seven raven hair teacher. The Bell County school board would be disappointed when Fannie told them her daughter Marie wasn’t coming back.

 

           Susie Lawson and her fiancé Elmer sat quietly across the isle from Marie. It was unusual for Susie to not be talking or cracking jokes. The so called “love birds” seemed lost in their own thoughts. Maybe Susie was having second thoughts about going to Indiana to marry Elmer, Marie thought.

 

          That night in King's Mills at their brother Ed Lawson’s house the sisters shared a twin bed but they were too tired to go to sleep. “Are you glad you didn’t go to Indiana to marry Elmer?” Marie was happy Susie hadn’t gone.

 

           “Lord, have mercy, yes! He’s a nice guy from a good family but I don’t want to get married right now. I want to have some fun, first!”

 

          The girls found their own apartment the next day across from Eden Park then they perused the newspaper for a job. They loved the fancy stores at Peeples Corner, a suburb of Cincinnati, and the Paramount Theater where Tyrone Power worked as an usher in 1909. They decided that riding everywhere in the street cars for ten-cents was better than riding old Bessie the cow! 

Picture by Brad Greenlee

          After the sisters worked six months at the Card Plant Marie decided she couldn’t watch another hour of playing cards going by on a conveyor belt.  She landed a clerk job at the F.W. Woolworth Co. at Peebles and within two months she became the bookkeeper; math had always been her expertise.

 

          One day at the store grill as Marie collected the noonday money from the register she felt somebody looking at her. She slowly looked up and saw two big eyes staring at her over the lunch menu. Immediately, she looked back down and finished putting the money in a bag. After she left, the guy with the big eyes asked the waitress who she was and if she was married.

 

          That evening after work Marie and her girlfriend went to eat at a restaurant a few blocks down the street from Woolworth. Her girlfriend saw her boyfriend at a table with friends so they joined them. The guy with the huge eyes and black wavy hair introduced himself as Jimmy Wilcox. The tall, handsome, Army radio operator walked Marie home that night.

Photo by Clive Darra

          Dating in the big city was expensive so Jimmy took Marie to an occasional movie at the Paramount. They had just as much fun going to all the free and interesting spots in Cincinnati. Their favorite spot was in Eden Park where they fed the ducks and listened to the radio. Suzie and her new boyfriend, Fred Schutte from South America, joined them on occasion for picnics and posing for pictures.  

 

          Jimmy kept calling Marie his Million Dollar Baby from the Five and Ten when he introduced her to people. One day he asked her. “Let’s go look at rings!” Marie smiled and they picked one out at Rogers Jewelers in Peebles. For the next week she couldn’t stop looking at the sparkly diamond  on her ring finger and showing it to all her friends.

         

Jimmy picked Marie up on Tuesday, March 11, 1947 for a lunch date. After lunch he said, “Let’s go right now to the Justice of Peace over in Covington, Ky. and get married.” Marie agreed if he would take her to Stony Fork for their honeymoon. She yearned to see her mother and to show off her new husband.

 

          “By the authority invested in me by the state of Kentucky I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss the bride!” The justice of peace  announced. Jimmy kissed his new bride. When they boarded the southbound Greyhound bus, Marie couldn’t believe a former boyfriend, Clayton, who had proposed to her two years back was sitting on the bus going home. Neither one acknowledged the other.

 

          The Greyhound bus deposited a very tired couple at the Pineville, Kentucky bus depot. Marie’s brother, Brad Lawson, picked them up in his truck and drove them back to his house in Stony Fork.

Photo by BEV Norton

          With no electric for heat in the frigid bedroom it took a long time under the thick quilts before Jimmy and Marie stopped shaking long enough so they could… go to sleep.

Their first child (me) was conceived about eight months later which you can read about in my memoir called, “PICK ME”. 

I Was a Heathen

          That morning my mother signed the church school permission slip and left it on the kitchen table. I grabbed it and dashed out the door and down two flights of stairs. I was glad the walk to my elementary school was only two blocks. It was freezing!

             I was nervous about going to church school that afternoon. David Haskle’s daddy was the church pastor. They lived two houses down from the corner grocery where I traded bottles for candy.  David told me because I didn’t go to church I was a heathen. He was the only person I knew who smiled while he insulted you yet you still liked him anyway.  

         At one o’clock the class lined up by rows for church school. Ever since Kindergarten I was near the end of the line because my last name was Wilcox. This year in fifth grade I didn’t mind being at the rear since Jimmy Wilson was behind me and made me laugh. In class he would slowly rise like a helicopter out of his seat twirling a ruler on a pencil above his head.

          In line he did hilarious things as soon as the teacher disappeared around the far corner down the hallway. He had us all giggling but I told him he better stop because Miss Terwilliger had excellent hearing and eyes in the back of her head.

            The frosty wind made me hug my parka when we exited the school building. I was glad I had on leggings when it blew the bottom of my dress up. The class traipsed quietly over the blacktop playground toward the church like they were going to a funeral. When we got closer I suddenly remembered my friend Jill and I had tried smoking a cigarette behind this church. Remembering this as I descended the steps into the church basement I lowered my head. I realized David Haskle was right; I was a heathen.

 

            Reverend Haskle came out on the stage and started telling the Christmas story. He kept pushing up his thick glasses on his long nose. His low voice made me crane my neck to hear every word. Being the shortest kid in class I was having trouble seeing around the wiggly heads from the back row.

 

            When the pastor started sticking scenery and colorful paper characters on a large flannel graph board I perked up. I was amazed how the palm trees, Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus didn’t fall off the board and unto the floor. He was speaking much louder now and the board was practically full. I was disappointed when the Bible story ended.

Image by Waiting For The Word

            I wondered what happened to baby Jesus when the star, the manger, the shepherds and the wise men were all put back into the pastor's shoebox.

           After Christmas break Rev. Haskle told stories of Jesus as a man until the Thursday before Good Friday. He used colorful artist’s prints on an easel. One picture was of a twelve year old Jesus talking with several older men in the temple. At first I thought Jesus had talked back to his parents when he said to them, “Didn’t you know I would be about my Father’s business?” I wondered if Jesus got punished when he got back home in Nazareth. However, Rev. Haskle explained that Jesus never sinned.

            After the ten weeks of church school were over I missed hearing about Jesus. Every time the pastor had said Jesus my ears perked up. Something was beginning to stir deep in my heart. I didn't know what it was. All I knew was that hearing about Jesus made me feel happy and curious to hear more.

Has Jesus ever knocked or stirred at your heart's door? 

Share in the comment section below or Contact page and I'll get back with you.

Thanks!

I Broke the Eighth Commandment

1958

I BROKE THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

          I parked my green Schwinn bike out front. I crossed my fingers on both hands as I walked in and passed the quiet machines. The last time I was in here with Mommy I spotted the half full rack. That’s when I got the idea to come back later. This place could save me a lot of time.

SHINE LIKE NEW by SARAH KORF REATIVE COMMONS  WWW.FLICKR.COM

Why was I feeling so guilty?

          Not many thirsty people as I eyed the rack. Sweat trickled down both sides of my red face. Nervously I looked out the big front windows. Nobody in sight. Carefully, I slid three bottles off the rack into my left arm and one for each hand.  

These few wouldn’t be missed.

         My feet carried me fast out the door. I felt like a crook. My daddy would definitely kill me but my sweet tooth didn’t care. For the hundredth time I wished my bike had a handlebar basket. How was I going to ride my bike with my hands full? I forgot to think my crime through.

 

         I looked down at my elastic waist band and quickly stuffed three half-way down my shorts. My chubby fingers would hold the lips of the other two while the palm of my hands guided the handle bars. It wasn’t easy peddling my bike down the long alley and up the steep hill.

Do they arrest nine year olds, I wondered?

          I was glad to reach the corner grocery store. The owner was used to my bartering visits and he said I had “ten-cents worth”. If he knew he was dealing with a thief he wouldn’t have sent me alone to the candy section.

 

         I filled my little bag with a strawberry Kit Kat stack, a black licorice roll with a red jawbreaker, three grape flavored sugar straws, Bazooka bubble gum, and pastel dot candy. I showed the store owner my purchases and he nodded. Rolling free along the sidewalk I enjoyed my bag of candy.

Why did the fresh candy taste so blah?

 

           TWO WEEKS LATER my writing hand was numb! I was on sentence number 668. I couldn’t hold my pencil any more. I was having trouble with my school work, too.  My punishment was to write one sentence over and over until I got to 1000.

 

          “I WILL NOT STEAL POP BOTTLES FROM THE LAUNDRY MAT EVER AGAIN.”

 

          I didn’t know how my daddy found out but he did. I got up from the kitchen table with the thick writing tablet and short pencil to go talk to Daddy. I needed some sympathy or my hand was going to fall off. I stood there in the semi-darkness of the bedroom staring down at him while he slept.

 

          When he opened his eyes and saw my face of pending doom he grinned. He asked me how the sentences were going. Dramatically, I lifted my withered hand. When he laughed I laughed, too. His good mood inspired me to mention I had learned my lesson. Daddy asked me what I had learned.

 

           I told him I learned it was wrong to steal bottles that belonged to the laundry mat. I could have been arrested and sent to kid jail and it would have embarrassed the whole family. Also, I caused five people to go without a cool refreshing Coke because of the five missing bottles. My daddy chuckled.

 

          Daddy said I had disobeyed one of God’s Ten Commandments. I didn’t know much about God nor did I know anything about his ten mints. I was just glad that God liked candy, too.

 

          I told my dad I was sorry for stealing the bottles and I would never do it again. I promised him I would never go in a laundry mat for as long as I lived. I would stay in my dirty clothes for punishment and ask Mommy to teach me how to use the ringer washer. He laughed.

TEN COMMANDMENTS BY  WCM 1111  CREATIVE COMMONS   WWW.FLICKR.COM

         

           When Daddy relinquished me from finishing the rest of the sentences I sighed with great relief. I thanked him several times and started to leave before he changed his mind but, he stopped me. I couldn’t believe what he wanted me to do. He said for two more weeks he didn’t want me to collect any more discarded bottles lying around in Oakley. It was something about sugar being bad for my teeth? 

         At nine, I didn’t know that much about God. I was already learning to ignore my conscience. My daddy’s talks and punishments helped me behave but I still felt bad inside.

 

 I needed something to take away my guilt and shame.

What do you think I needed?

COKE BOTTLES SISTER BY DON GRAHAM  CREATIVE COMMONS  WWW.FLICKR.COM

My Daddy

When my daddy was born they named him James Edward Wilcox. His twin sister was called Luna Katherine Wilcox. Both babies were healthy when they were born but at three months old they developed pneumonia. Luna Kathryn was the stronger baby of the two but she died before she was six months. Many thought scrawny little Jimmy didn’t have a chance.

 

My daddy lived.

 

My daddy never stopped looking for his baby sister. They had bonded for nine months inside my grandmother Bertha’s womb. Luna Katherine’s absence left a deep sadness on my daddy. He grieved for her 62 years. Often he wondered if his life would have been happier if his sister hadn’t died.  

 

While playing on the farm my five year old daddy was infected by a rusty nail. The Tetanus vaccine wasn’t invented yet. Within a few days he couldn’t open his jaws. He had Lockjaw. If he hadn’t lost a couple of baby teeth before it happened he might have died. The gap left in his mouth from the missing teeth allowed him to sip nourishment through a straw. For days Jimmy’s little body fought the fever, spasms, stiffness and pain.

 

 My daddy escaped death.

 

When my daddy was sixteen he accidently fell off his horse while riding. His slim frame landed on something hard and bruised his hip. Every time he thought it had healed the infection returned with a vengeance. When the doctor used a long needle to drain the pus from deep inside his hip my daddy started getting better.

 

My daddy cheated death.

 

At twenty-two with flat feet my daddy joined the Army. He trained as an Army tel-communicator in San Francisco. His job would allow him to travel in enemy territory with his regiment and keep headquarters informed of their position and situation. While in training he started going to the chapel on base and gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was baptized before he shipped out over seas to fight in WWII.

During the bloody Battle of Okinawa several of Jimmy’s buddies died all around him. The shock of seeing their lifeless bodies and open eyes would haunt my daddy for a long time.

 

 During an attack my daddy and his buddy jumped into a foxhole to avoid flying bullets. A Japanese soldier leaped over their heads to the other side of their foxhole. He shot my daddy’s friend but not my daddy then he took off.

 

For years my daddy couldn’t understand why his friend had died that day in that foxhole and not him. He wished he had died instead. His buddy was not ready to meet God.

 

My daddy experienced a miracle in a  foxhole.

 

 When my daddy came home after the war he met my mom and they got married and started having kids. He had one last, life threatening episode with a huge kidney stone that wouldn’t pass. The heavy medication would not relieve the fire of pain raging inside my daddy’s body.

 

My daddy wanted to die.  

 

 At 3 A.M. after tossing and turning my daddy felt someone’s presence in the room. He opened his eyes and starred into the kind face of a stranger. Something was comforting about his kind eyes. He said he was a hospital chaplain and asked my daddy if he could pray for him. Jimmy was so weak he couldn’t whisper so he nodded.

 

My daddy passed his large kidney stone.

 

When he woke up the next day at noon my daddy felt great for the first time in weeks. When the nurse peeked in on him he was sitting up in the bed. He told her he was starving. The astonished nurse dropped the bed pan and ran to tell the others. The hospital staff did not see or know of any chaplain on duty in the middle of the night.

 

 

Have you almost died? Why do you think you didn't die?

 

Are you ready to die?

 

Leave your COMMENT below or click on CONTACT.

 

What’s in a Name?

1959

       “BUYING OR BAGGING your lunch today, Kathryn Wilcox?” My new teacher asked me ten minutes after The Pledge of Allegiance.Like many teachers she had chosen to take the lunch count in alphabetical order. By the time she got to my name half the class was finished with half of the writing  assignment. I didn't start on it because I was afraid I wouldn’t hear her call my name for my lunch report and everyone would laugh.

I answered her and said, “Bagging.” For five years I had been bagging my lunch at Oakley Elementary School. Mom and Dad couldn’t afford the lunch money. I loved making my own PBJ sandwich or cheese sandwich made with lots of Miracle Whip.

My worse day of the week was walking by the lunchroom on Thursday when the heavenly aroma of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup titillated my taste buds. When I entered packer room my happy nose was assaulted with the smell of rotting banana peels, brown apple cores and uneaten tuna fish sandwiches.

From Kindergarten through fifth grade I always took my place near the rear of the line whether we went to art, gym, music, lunch or the restroom. I had seen a lot of weird stuff. Everyday in third grade the same girl and boy kissed on the lips the full five minutes while the teacher was out of the room using the restroom before lunch.

My plan was to marry cute Bruce Adams and stop the last name with the “W” curse. Our children would never have to sit in the back of the classroom and squint their eyes to see the blackboard. They would never have to wait for the office to run off extra copies of permission slips to go to the Zoo. Nope. Never.

 Back in fourth grade my teacher, Miss. Wilson, understood the last name “W” dilemma. Every other week she started at the bottom of the alphabet for roll call, lunch report and lining up. God bless that woman even if she did look like a buzzard.

 I watched how my new, poised teacher handed the lunch money envelop to Dallas Anderson. She did it with such flair I thought it might be a letter to President Eisenhower. Dallas over-reacted and marched across the front of the room like a soldier. It made Helen Martin and me giggle.

Five minutes later we heard Dallas returning from the lunch room. He was shaking the loud tokens in the SUCRETS lozenge tin all the way down the hall.The dimwitted boy had no clue what he was doing. I may be shy but my giggle box was not.

Photo by Kathy Storrie

The class laughed and we wagged our heads.  Twenty-four pair of eyes watched to see what the teacher would say or do to the immature boy. She simply ignored him and kept looking over her lesson plans when he placed the lozenger box on her desk. She waited until he sat down before she picked up a long piece of white chalk with her bony fingers and walked to the board. I felt myself beginning to like this teacher for some reason. I liked the way her silver gray hair fit neatly into a French twist, but too bad her dress was so drab.

After she wrote her name on the board she turned around and faced the class with a smile. We gasped in horror! We couldn't believe what we were seeing. Billy Aims spun around in his front row seat with his eyes crossed and his mouth hanging open. I pressed my hands hard on my mouth so I wouldn’t laugh. The teacher might think I was laughing at her name.

“Class, my name is  Miss  Krapp.”

Why was that a last name I wondered? Who would start that as a last name? If I had a last name like that I would never be a teacher and cause kids to cuss all day! I would get a job in a library somewhere at the North Pole and refuse to wear a name tag. Or, I would get married quick! I was so glad my last name was Wilcox. I would never complain again.

A WEEK PASSED and we still called her, “Teacher” like little first graders. By October only a few brave students said, “Miss Krapp”. I couldn’t say it. I wasn’t allowed to say a bad word.

Day by day my teacher’s kindheartedness rubbed off on my wretched soul. She noticed and praised each of her students. When she bragged on my cursive “Ks” and “Ws” I felt like a Queen for a Day  on the Jack Bailey Show.

Miss Krapp was the epitome of patience, love, quiet order, and teaching outside the box.

One day Miss Krapp picked me to take the lunch money to the lunchroom. I was thrilled but also astonished she would pick a poor bagger girl. For some reason she smiled extra big when she handed me the brown envelop.

As I turned to leave the lunchroom with the tokens in the Succret tin an older, kitchen woman asked me to speak with her in private. She smiled and explained that the kitchen was looking for sixth graders who would be interested in helping out in the lunchroom. My pay would be a hot lunch everyday I worked.

I knew Miss Krapp’had something to do with this.

My mother signed the permission slip and we went shopping for a hair net to cover my curly hair.

I couldn't wait until Thursday.

One day after lunch Miss Krapp, my favorite teacher, read a Bible devotional about children playing the game Hide-and-seek with their parents. She said remember how you used to hide behind a door or a tree because you wanted your mommy or daddy to come find you?  Remember how happy you laughed and how you ran off to hide again?

God does the same kind of hiding from us because he wants us to take the time to find Him, too. We think because we can’t see Him that He is not real but He is very real, indeed.

 She asked us to put our head down on our desk, close our eyes tightly and count to ten together slowly. We did it. When we raised our heads Miss Krapp was gone!

“Hello! Can you hear me?” Miss Krapp asked.

 “Yes!” We answered.

“Can you see me?” She asked.

“No.” We answered all excited.

“Am I in the room or outside the room?

“In the room!” We proclaimed.

“How do you know I’m in the room?”

We just looked at each other and waited for Elizabeth  who knows how to say things with few words. “Because you sound close and not far.”

Miss Krapp popped her head out from under her desk. Everyone laughed and clapped. She got to her feet and fell into her chair. Our eyes glowed with excitement as we breathlessly waited for an explanation

My spirit jolted inside me as she began to speak.

“I can easily hide from you under a desk,” she said taking a deep breath, “but I could never hide from God. If I went deep, deep down into a cave or the bottom of the ocean God could see me. Wherever you go He is there and He sees you. You are the apple of His eye and He loves you very much. The Bible says in Psalm 139:8.  If  I ascend up into heaven, thou or God art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou God art there.

“You couldn’t see me but could you hear me, right?” Miss Krapp asked.

“Yes!”We agreed.

“We can’t see God because He is invisible but we can hear his words!”

Billy Aims piped up, “How do we hear God's words?”

Miss Krapp held up her worn, black Bible. “We hear God through His Word in the Bible!”

Little did I know that this wonderful Christian woman was helping me see that God was waiting for me to find Him.

Are you looking for God?

Have you found Him, yet? 

Left Behind

LEFT BEHIND

BATHROOM STALL BY TIM EVANSON  CREATIVE COMMONS   WWW.FLICKR.COM

      The marble walls boxed me in and the black and white floor tiles made me dizzy. I leaned  over and pressed my chubby cheek  against the cool marble.  To keep from falling into the water I had to wiggle forward constantly since my feet didn't touch the floor.  Bright light from a corner window  peeped over the stall door and made me shut my eyes.

    Weary from exhaustion I let my sweaty head fall into my wadded up dress and scratchy petticoat in my lap. When it got quiet I realized I was alone. I jumped up, pulled up my panties and pushed down the metal handle. The thunderous flush echoed off the walls of the century old restroom as if scolding me for my pokiness. Surely, my class was waiting for me in the hall.  I turned on the faucet and waved my hands through the water. On the way to the exit I used my dress as a  towel.

   I peeped out the restroom door and looked down the hall.

It was long and empty. No students. No teacher. No noise, No

clue as to which way they went.

   How could they leave me behind?

I held back my tears while fear lodged in my throat.

I coughed loudly but nobody heard me. The water fountain

took care of my dry throat but not my ego. 

Somebody will surely miss the quiet girl in the pretty turquoise dress…wouldn’t they?
    

Nobody hardly noticed me so  how  would they remember me? I hadn't spoken a word to anyone. I didn’t know what to say to one person let alone so many.  Maybe my teacher, Miss Hope, was mad at me. I should have obeyed her and sat on the floor during the Tiskit a Tasket game. But, my Mommy told me to not sit on the floor and get my dress dirty.

      I turned around and saw the sun rays coming through the open doors that exited to the playground. That’s when I figured it out. School was over! Everyone had gone home. I looked further away and noticed something familiar.  The buildings were fuzzy but one of them stood out. It looked like my dark red brick apartment building.

4005 LENOX APARTMENTS IN OAKLEY ON THIRD FLOOR PHOTO BY KATHY STORRIE 7-27-14

     Like a big girl I walked out the doors and I didn’t look back. Walking home alone didn’t feel right.  I remembered Mommy had picked me up yesterday. I couldn’t stop my determined feet from going home.

ALCOVE INTO LENOX APARTMENT  OAKLEY, CINCINNATI  PHOTO BY KATHY STORRIE

     I forgot how dark and scary it was in the hallway entrance of our apartment building. To make sure nobody was hiding under the staircase I waited by the mailboxes to let my eyes focus.  When it looked safe I ran down the hall and up the steps to the second floor.

APARTMENT HALLWAY ON FIRST FLOOR     PHOTO BY KATHY STORRIE  7-26-14

Is this my floor I wondered? I looked at the door on the right. It was different from my door. I looked up the second set of steps to the third floor.  It looked familiar. After the climb I banged on the third floor door on the right because this was my door. I don’t know how I knew it was my door but it was.

     Mommy opened door wide and I sheepishly walked in.  While she talked on the phone in the living room I stayed in the kitchen.  Pollyanna paced on her perch inside her cage excited to see me.  I opened the door and she jumped on my waiting finger and started talking gibberish. My mommy asked somebody on the phone if she should send me back to school.

I cringed and listened.  When I heard her say she wouldn't bring me back until tomorrow I smiled and kissed Pollyann on her soft head. I crept into the living room and put the yellow parakeet on the window sill. She walked over to the five Crayola crayons I left for her.  One by one she picked them up in her thick beak.  She carried each one to the edge of the window sill and dropped them over the side.

      Mommy and me couldn't wait to see the way the bird turned her head sideways to watch the crayon roll across the linoleum floor. That little bird cracked us up everyday with her feistiness and fussing at my Daddy's toes sticking out from under the sheet.  One time we forgot the window was open and she flew out. My mom opened the window all the way and leaned out so she could see her. Mommy called and called for her to come back. We watched Pollyanna fly around in two big circles and then she flew back through our window. Mommy shut the window with a sigh of relief.

      “Kathy, I was talking to your Principal, Mr. Martin, when you got home. He said everyone was looking for you at school. Why did you leave school before it was out?”

     "Mommy, my class left me while  I was still in the bathroom.”

     “You couldn’t find your classroom?” Mommy asked

     “I didn’t know where my room was. I waited but nobody came back.”

     “How did you find your way home?”

     “There were open doors right by the restroom. I looked out and saw our apartment and walked home.”

     “So you looked both ways before you crossed the street?”

     “Yep! Just like you teached me.”

     “Good girl!” She smiled.

One day in the near future hundreds of millions of people are

going to disappear off the face of the earth. Only those who

believe in the Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will be raptured

or “caught up” to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air

and forever be with Him.

This will cause much fear and chaos on the earth for the

people who are left behind.  It will be a sign to the world that

the worst time on earth has started.

Now is the time to repent of your sin and receive Jesus

Christ  as your  personal Savior so you won't be left behind .

Pick Me!

       Flashes of cobalt lightening burst throughout God’s magnificent throne and inter- mixed with the sweet smelling prayers  of the saints as they drifted up from Earth to Heaven. The holy blend filled the spacious expanse of Heaven and titillated the nostrils of the great. Creator Who sat on His Throne.

     “Pick me, Abba Father, Pick me!” I cried in unison with tens of thousands of other baby spirits. We intermingled happily like a perpetual tapestry of floating diamonds around the throne of the Most High. "And he that sat was to look upon like jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." Rev.4:3

Picture by Waiting for the Word  CREATIVE COMMONS   WWW.FLICKR.COM

     The sight of tens of thousands of saints that had died on earth and left their bodies  lay prostrate on the translucent glass floor as they worshipped the Almighty God. Myriads of glorious Angels joined the sons of men in worship at the feet of our Lord and Savior and King.

     I never tired of my place around the throne room worshipping my Heavenly Father. I asked God why all the baby spirits who left for Earth don’t come back. He said it was due to the sin curse on the Earth caused by Lucifer who rebelled against Him. I remember when Jesus left Heaven for His assignment on Earth. But, when He returned  He had large holes in His wrists and feet.
 

     I promised God I would do good things on Earth. He said helping your neighbor was good but it was not enough to get you into Heaven. God volunteered His perfect Son as the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus counted the cost to break the curse of sin and accepted the great price on man’s behalf.  
 

     When it was almost time for me to go to Earth God told me not to worry. He said He looked into the future and made perfect plans for many souls to hear the gospel in their own language . If they never hear the gospel message of Jesus Christ they can listen and obey their conscience.
 

 When God called my name He introduced me to my guardian Angel. At the departure portal together we stared through millions of galaxies. The Earth, the apple of God’s eye, was always visible from Heaven and shone like a tiny sapphire dot among the stars. In less than a minute my Angel and I would be inside the first heaven around the Earth.

I would be placed  inside my mother’s womb where my body was already two cells and growing strong inside Marie Lawson Wilcox.

Discernment

Dis-cern-ment\ noun. 1: The quality of detecting with senses other than vision; 2: DISCRIMINATE (~ right from wrong) 3: Skill of perception of good or evil 4: Insight that goes beyond what is obvious or superficial 5: To see the scorn beneath smiling eyes. 6: A gut feeling       

My parents rented two rooms upstairs in a tired house on Kemper Lane.   While Daddy worked Mommy and I played, walked to Peeple’s Corner, and fed the ducks at Eden Park. She laughed when I patted her belly and asked, “Watermelon?"

Six months later my baby brother was born.

THE BACK YARD  PAINTED BY KATHY STORRIE

Maybe that was why Mommy wouldn't let me out of her sight. I begged her to let me play paper dolls with the landlord’s daughter.  Finally, she let me go downstairs to play with Melinda. While we were playing I felt the hair on my arms and neck raise.  I sensed that someone was watching us behind the curtain that separated the parlor from the dining room.  Melinda nonchalantly waved her hand and said it was just her creepy, older brother snooping on us.

 One summer day while mommy fed my brother outside on a quilt I got hot and jumped up to explore.  I walked around the yard and ended up at the open door of the detached garage .  The dark, coolness lured me inside to look around.  After my eyes adjusted I saw two saw horses and lots of dusty tools.  The harsh odor of dirt and gasoline made me turn around to leave but Melinda’s brother blocked the way  ... I froze like the statue in Fountain Square.

He gave me a crooked grin and told me to sit on a sawhorse. He said he wanted to show me a magic trick.  Reluctantly, I obeyed.  On the other end of my sawhorse he sat down facing me.  Between his fingers he held up a shiny copper penny.

“I need for you to help me make this penny disappear.” His smile gave me chills.  Even at the age of four I knew something was not right.

“I'm going to drop this magic penny down your shirt and it will disappear. Are you ready?” Not waiting for me to answer he leaned over and dropped the penny down my shirt. I felt it go down my chest and out the bottom.  He showed his empty hands and proclaimed, "The penny's gone!"

"It’s on the floor!” I said, looking down and pointing to it with my foot.

 With disappointment he picked it up and blew off the dirt. "No problem, I'll try again.”  This time he pretended to drop it down my shirt but I never felt it go down. 

“The penny's gone!" He showed me his empty hands again.  Before I knew it he scooted closer to me until his knees touched mine. “I think the penny went down into your shorts. I need to find my penny, Kathy."

Just as he reached for my shorts I heard Mommy call me. “Kathy, where are you? Get back here right now!”

Melinda’s brother jumped backwards off the saw horse.  Out the garage and down the drive way he ran.  Within a second my mother appeared in the garage doorway holding my brother.  I slumped with a sigh of relief.

 “Kathy, what was that boy doing in here with you?”

 “He was showing me a magic trick with a penny, Mommy."

When I told her about the details of the magic trick we moved away.

Share if you or someone you know has experienced discernment in a time of danger? I was glad my mother discerned that something bad was happening and called my name. When I was too afraid to answer she searched for me. Thank you God for a discerning mother who listened to You. 

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