Hidden Thrones (9 page)

“Go
and talk to God. Your Messiah is waiting for you.”

Frank
took a deep breath
,
got into his car
,
and drove off. Now it was time to head home. As Jack pulled
away
,
he
thought he heard the sound of a bell coming from the church steeple. He
listened again
, then shook his head.
No,
he thought
.
T
hat couldn’t be.
Then a sm
ile
broke out on
his face and he
said out loud, “O
r could it?”

Thursday
came and went without incident except for a long awaited call from Frank. He
told Jack all about the incredible experience he had driving home the night
before and how he never thought something like this could happen to him. Frank
truly felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off of him. Frank also
told Jack that he would be taking the day off to rest and to start reading his Bible,
which Jack had given him as a gift a few weeks after they started working
together.

Jack
was elated. He felt like it was happening to him all over again. He was so
happy for his friend. Before they hung up, Jack prayed with Frank, and then
jokingly said, “Now we have something to talk about.”

Jack
was really looking forward to Sunday so he could introduce Frank to some of his
friends from church, many of whom had been praying for Frank for years.

Now it
was Friday morning which meant that Friday night was only hours away. He was
more than a little nervous about his dinner with Emily, especially since it had
been a long time since he had been on a date. He had been out to parties and had
socialized with women, but this - well, this was a real date.

Jack had
picked Regina’s because it was very nice, but casual. He didn’t want to give
the wrong impression. He just wanted to build a friendship and go from there -
to move slow. He couldn’t even imagine how awkward it would be to go back to
CJ’s if things didn’t work out. His mind was filled with scenarios, good and
bad. For now, he would try to just chill out and take a deep breath; something
he hadn’t been able to do for a while.

* * *

Jack
pulled up to Emily’s apartment building, shut off the car, and collected
himself. He thought,
Come on! I have fought with demons and talked with an
angel. How hard could this be
?

He
walked up the concrete walkway and hit the buzzer. Emily’s voice came through
the speaker, “Hi, Jack! I’ll be right down.”

“Okay,”
he answered. He watched a man across the street wash his car as he waited for Emily
to come out. A few seconds passed and the door opened. Emily walked out,
looking beautiful. He thought to himself,
Jack, try not to screw this up
!

“Hi,”
Emily greeted him with a smile. “I see you found the place okay.”

“Oh
yeah!” Jack replied, trying not to sound nervous.
“
GPS - never leave home without it.”

As
they reached the car, Jack opened the passenger door for her and then got in.

“Regina’s
is only a few miles from here. Have you ever been there before?” Jack asked.

“I
haven’t, but most everybody I know loves it there. I’m a big lasagna fan. I
lived on Italian food back in New York. That’s where my family’s from -
Brooklyn actually.”

“Brooklyn?
Wow, I would never have guessed. I never picked up on an accent.”

“It
comes out once in a while. I’ve been in Virginia for about eight years now.”

“How
long have you been at CJ’s?” Jack asked.

“Almost
two years. The owners are pretty nice there and the tips aren’t bad. You seem
to like it there, too. You and...?” she paused. “Frank, right?”

Jack
laughed, “Yeah, Frank. We work together. We like to meet there and discuss... business,
I guess.”

“Yeah,
I see you both there a lot. If you don’t mind me saying so, your conversations
look… intense. Not that I hear anything, really.  It just looks like you’re
really into whatever it is you’re discussing.”

Jack
just smiled. “We do get intense sometimes. I guess you could say that it’s a
complicated job.”

Jack
could see Regina’s coming up on the right. “Here we are. I made a reservation
because this place is always hopping.”

Jack
and Emily walked up to the hostess station. The hostess confirmed their
reservation and showed them to their table. It was a great spot beside a large
window and overlooking the flower gardens.

The
waitress promptly came over and asked, “Can I get you something to drink?” Emily
smiled and said, “A glass of iced tea would be fine, please.”

Jack
took note and added, “I’ll have the same.” Jack would occasionally have a glass
of red wine, but he didn’t know how Emily felt about it, so he decided to follow
her lead.

“So,
from Brooklyn, New York to Blackstone, Virginia. What made that happen?”

“Well,
I went to George Mason University in Fairfax right out of high school. I was
there for a couple of years and kind of bailed out.   I’ve been here ever
since.”

Jack’s
mind quickly figured out that Emily was, at best, twenty-seven. She didn’t look
older, but he just had it in his head somehow that she was at least thirty
years old.

 “If
you don’t mind me asking, why didn’t you go back home to New York?”

“Well,
I met a guy who I thought was really cool, and, big shocker,” she said
sarcastically, “he was a musician and in a band! I dropped out of school to go
with him on tour - not a good experience. It didn’t end up well, to say the
least. I wasted two years of my life with that jerk. To make things worse, my
parents completely freaked out when I dropped out of the university and we kind
of stopped talking after that.”

She
looked at Jack and thought,
He’ll probably be glad when this date’s over
.
Emily sighed and said, “Pretty awful, huh.”

When the
waitress brought their drinks, Jack told her they needed a few more minutes to
look at the menu. She said, “Sure, no problem,” and left them to decide.

Trying
not to make her feel worse, Jack said, “Hey, things happen. We all have our
stuff - nobody’s perfect. How are things now with your parents?”

Looking
more at ease, Emily replied, “Okay. We talk a couple times a month now. They
would like to see me go back to school, but I have to make a living and I’m not
sure what I want to do right now. The only good thing that came out of all of that
is, when I left him and was at my worst, the Lord came into my life, which, by
the way, made my family believe that I went from bad to worse, if you know what
I mean.”

“Believe
me, I know,” Jack sympathized. “It’s a shame you had to go through all that,
but God has His ways. I’ve never been able to figure them out, but He always
knows what He’s doing.”

Emily
smiled and nodded. Trying to change the subject, she said, “Well, enough about
me. How about you? I hear you are an author. What kinds of things do you write
about?”

Jack
could only think,
Wow! If she thought her life was a little crazy, just wait
until she hears about what I do
.

Jack
took a sip of iced tea and answered, “I study and write about paranormal
activity and, on occasion, the government will bring me in as a consultant on
difficult cases.”

Jack
waited for her reaction. Emily stared at him for a moment and he could feel the
sweat building up on the back of his neck. He thought,
Really, Jack? You
opened with that? God, I’m blowing this for sure.

Emily
said,
 “Wow! That’s amazing. How did you
get into that?”

Immediately,
Jack could feel the anxiety draining from his face.

“That’s
a long story. Maybe we should order first.” Jack motioned for the waitress and
they each placed their order. Emily ordered her lasagna and Jack, his favorite
ravioli. When the waitress left, Emily, very interested in hearing Jack’s story,
kept the conversation going. “So you were about to tell me how you got into
this paranormal stuff?”

“Right.
Well, it might not be good dinner conversation now that I think about it. I
don’t want to get all heavy duty on you.”  He tried to deter her from the subject,
but as he looked into her eyes, he could tell she was eager to hear about it.

“I
don’t mind! I think it’s really cool. I mean, I’ve been on dates that were just
plain awful filled with long boring conversation. Please, if you don’t mind
talking about it, I would love to hear it.”

Jack
hesitated, but realized how comfortable Emily made him feel. He continued, “Well…
okay. I will warn you, it has a very sad beginning.” Jack drew a deep breath,
and then exhaled. Emily mimicked him and braced herself.

Jack
continued, “It started fifteen years ago when my girlfriend Susan, who I was
about to propose to, was killed by a drunk driver. I was devastated, as you can
imagine, and just kind of drifted along in a daze for quite awhile. Her sister
was into mediums and psychics and all kinds of weird stuff, and was bent on
talking to her dead sister. She dragged me along with her to all these readings
and séances trying to contact her. It was awful. Every place we went, all they
did was take her money and lie to her. I mean, I didn’t know the Lord then, but
even I could see all they were doing was ripping her off. I tried to tell her
it was a bad idea, but she wanted to try one more so I went along with it, but
begged her to promise that it was the last one. We ended up at a carnival that
advertised a woman who could tell the future and talk to departed family
members and friends. Well, when we got in there and this woman got going, I got
a very strange, uneasy feeling. There was something very different about this
one. We could hear several voices coming from different parts of the room and
just when I thought it was eerie enough, the woman began to speak in a man’s
voice. It was deep and gravelly. It wasn’t like anything we had ever heard
before. It shook me to my core. I grabbed Susan’s sister and we got out of
there in a hurry.

“When
we got out, we saw this guy handing out pamphlets about the Lord. He came up to
us and told us that that place we were in was very evil, and we needed to look
to God for answers instead of the devil. He asked us if we wanted to accept
Jesus as our savior and handed us a pamphlet. Susan’s sister took the pamphlet,
looked at it for a minute, and threw it on the ground. She grabbed my hand and
told me that we needed to get out of there, but I wanted to hear more. I told
her to go ahead, but that I was going to stay because I wanted to talk to him
some more.”

Emily
was mesmerized. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Jack. Just then, the food
showed up. Jack, wanting to change the subject for a while, said, “Thank you! This
looks great.”

“Can I
get you anything else?” the waitress asked.

Jack
looked at Emily. “No, I’m good,” she said with a smile.

Jack
leaned over and said, “Is it okay if I say a quick blessing over the food?”

“Of
course! Please, do.”

Emily
thought to herself,
This guy is too good to be true
.

Jack
said a quick prayer, smiled and said, “Okay, enough talking - let’s  eat.”

After
about twenty minutes of enjoying and commenting on how awesome the dinner was,
Emily said, “If you don’t mind, please continue. I love listening to you.”

Jack
hadn’t talked about this particular topic for years for a lot of reasons.
However, this felt like the right time and the right person to share it all with.

“Okay,
well I stayed and talked to this guy for an hour or more asking him all kinds
of questions. Finally, he asked me if I would like to pray with him and ask
Christ to come into my life. At that point, I was ready… big time. I had lost
the girl I hoped to marry and I was over running around looking for answers in
all those dark places. That day, God changed my life, and from that day on, I
attended Bible classes, studied everyday, and grabbed everything I could get my
hands on about what the world considered to be paranormal activity. I didn’t
realize it at the time, but God was leading and guiding me to the truth about
it all. Now, I get to investigate cases for the federal government and reveal
to others what the unseen world is really about.” He took a deep breath,
relieved to finally share his story and finished with, “That’s my story and
that’s what I write about.”

Emily
sat back in her chair, taking it all in. After a long pause, she responded, “That
is amazing! I think what you do is fascinating.”

Jack
thought,
Baby, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

When
they finished eating, Jack suggested they get dessert at a little ice cream
place he knew of that made it all from scratch. Emily agreed and off they went.
Afterward, they went for a long walk, enjoying each other’s company and their
ice cream.

It was
late when they headed back home. Jack pulled in front of Emily’s apartment and
shut off the engine. They sat in the car talking and laughing for another hour.

Although
she never wanted the night to end, she glanced at the time and said, “Wow! It’s
later than I thought. I wish I didn’t have to go, but unfortunately I have to
be get up at 5am for work in the morning.”

Emily
moved a little closer to Jack, smiled, and whispered, “I had a great time. I
can’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much.”

Jack
smiled back. “Me too. I would love to see you again. Can I call you?”