Seasons (3 page)

“I don’t think so,” she mumbled, almost overcome by anxiety. She had already gone against enough of her long-held values,
and look where it had gotten her. She noticed they were turning into the parking lot. As soon as he parked the car, Maxie
began to kiss and caress her.

“Come on, babe, loosen up! You’ve been uptight all night.”

Knowing she couldn’t put it off any longer, she swallowed nervously and hoped her vocal cords would cooperate because somehow,
she had to get the words out. She condemned herself for being such a coward—heck! She’d always had the courage to confront
any situation. Until now. She took a deep breath and began speaking. The words came out in a tight, squeaking voice. “I’m
pregnant, Maxie. I . . .”

“You’re what?” he yelled, interrupting her and quickly moving away from her.

She continued in words that were rushed, choppy, and unsure. “I know this wasn’t planned, but now that it’s happened, we need
to decide what we’re going to do.” She stole a look at him and noticed his response was anything but enthusiastic. His body
stiffened and his ardor mysteriously disappeared. His unexpected reaction cut into her emotions, bringing tears to her eyes.
This was not the way it was supposed to play out. He should have been taking her in his arms and assuring her that everything
would be okay.

Instead, he was quiet for long moments before asking angrily, “How did you let that happen? And just what do you expect me
to do about it?”

O . . . kaaay!
Not exactly a positive response. She was hurt and disappointed, but she
had
just hit him with some unexpected news. “Well, I guess we need to decide if we’re going to get married or . . . exactly what
we’re going to do.” Her tear-filled voice and body language pleaded for reassurance, which didn’t come.

If possible, his voice was colder, harder. “That’s easy. There’s not much I
can
do since I’m already married.”

“What?” Shock and confusion coursed through her.
Why was he lying?
“Maxie, you’re not married. You showed me your divorce papers, remember? And I know you live alone.” A nervous giggle escaped
as she tried to hide her hurt.

Maxie shrugged nonchalantly. “We . . . eeell, let me put it this way. Those divorce papers I showed you? They were from my
first marriage. I’m still married to my second wife. Off and on anyway. We’re kind of on the outs right now.”

His words delivered such a devastating blow to Jacetta’s heart that it felt almost physical, and a distressing question exploded
in her head.
Oh Lord, what have I done?

“S-s-second w-wife!” Jacetta was so upset she started stammering. “You n-n-never said anything about being m-m-married twice.”

Her youth and inexperience made her easy prey for Maxie’s deliberate attack. “It’s not my fault if you took it for granted
that I had only been married once.”
Which was what I intended you to do,
he thought. “And when Geneva opened her big mouth and told you I was married, I had to do something to prove her wrong and
pacify you.” He spoke in a tone of self-righteous indignation. “I should have known better than to get involved with a stupid
little hick.”

Hurt and anger caused tears to slide down her face. The words
used, fool, stupid
entered her mind and made her cringe as she realized how easily and eagerly she had been taken in by him. It didn’t lessen
her despair to know she wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last to find herself in such a predicament.

Her cousin C.J’s words came back to haunt her.
“Jace, are you absolutely certain this guy is not already married or hooked up with somebody? He sounds almost too good to
be true. And remember what Grampa used to say? If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. Just be careful, okay?”

Why hadn’t she listened? Maybe if she had . . .

Shame engulfed her, winning the battle over all other emotions. She knew this shame would be with her for the rest of her
life. Not only had she dishonored herself, but also she had dishonored God, her family, and all the people back home in Riverwood
who with so much pride and expectation had sent her off.

Her daddy’s words,
“You get in trouble, don’t coming running back to my house,”
popped into her mind, bringing other harsh realities: She couldn’t go home and she couldn’t stay in her uncle’s already crowded
apartment. Also, she was in a precarious position on her job because she had been there only a few weeks. Basically, she was
homeless—and pregnant. Suddenly, another emotion took center stage in her mind—fear.
What am I going to do?

She looked at Maxie with anguish etched into her face. “But why? Why would you lie and deliberately mislead me? What could
I have possibly done to deserve this kind of treatment from you? I love you, Maxie, and I thought you loved me.”

She kept staring at him in stunned disbelief, remembering how flattered and over-the-moon happy she had been when he started
pursuing her. Now, she was struggling to understand the rationale behind his calm announcement that he was married, that love
wasn’t a part of the game he was playing, and that if she was too stupid to know that, it wasn’t his fault.

“So, Geneva was telling me the truth after all,” Jacetta said while sobbing heartbrokenly. How had she gotten to this place?
Pregnant. Alone. Ashamed. Terrified.

Maxie looked at her and said impatiently, “Don’t start with the childish hysterics. Even if you are pregnant, it’s not the
end of the world. We’ll deal with it later, but I need to go ahead and leave now.”

“But . . . what am I supposed to do, Maxie? You have to help me! It’s your child too!”

Maxie shrugged his shoulders and looked out the car window.
Well the fun is over with this one. It’s time to move on,
he thought to himself.

He remained silent for so long that Jacetta brokenly asked again, “Please, Maxie, what am I going to do?”

“Look!” he yelled at her. Her whining was getting on his nerves. “I thought you knew what to do to keep this from happening,
but evidently, you didn’t have sense enough to do that, so you have yourself to blame.” He turned the ignition to start the
car. “If I were you . . .” he paused briefly, effectively letting her know it was her problem, and hers alone. “I’d start
thinking about how to get rid of this baby.”

Jacetta gasped, trying to comprehend what she was hearing. “You mean an abortion? I can’t do that! Not as long as there are
other alternatives.” She was furious and wanted to slap him for even making that kind of suggestion. “You want to kill this
baby, Maxie? Your own child?” She was yelling at the top of her voice but couldn’t seem to help herself. “You can forget it!”

Really wanting to get away at this point, Maxie looked at her, thinking,
Am I going to have to throw this woman out of my car?
He had no intention of dealing with this, now or ever.

“Look, you do whatever you want to,” he said with indifference. “I told you I have to go. If you don’t want to follow my suggestion,
that’s up to you.”

Jacetta’s shoulders slumped. Her pride wouldn’t let her beg him anymore. She opened the car door and stepped out. Before closing
the door, she leaned down and said, “Maxie, I hope to hear from you soon, but if I don’t, just remember one thing: God is
merciful, but He’s also just. It might take years, but you
will
regret the day you rejected me and your child. This baby and I will make it, Maxie. God will see to that.”

Maxie wasted no time in speeding out of the parking lot without looking back.

Jacetta had never felt so alone as she watched the taillights of his car disappear. Distraught, she looked around the dark
parking lot, knowing she couldn’t face going into the apartment where there would be no privacy. But she had nowhere else
to go. She found a dark corner behind the trash container, where she sat down on the cold ground and cried bitterly as she
released her dreams into the night.

While tears streamed silently down her face, she spoke to the only One she knew Who would never leave or forsake her. She
didn’t care who might come along and hear her. “Father, forgive me. I’ve sinned and done what I knew was wrong. And my actions
have resulted in a child. Lord, I need You like I’ve never needed You before. Please have mercy on me and help me.”

As the days passed, her fervent hope of hearing from Maxie gradually faded. He had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth,
leaving Jacetta alone to face the cold winds of winter. She knew that if she and her child were to survive from this point
on, she could only depend on herself and the Lord.

The innocent, carefree, enthusiastic Jacetta was gone! Maxie had given her a crash course in life and in just a few moments
she had changed from a breezy spring idealist to a stormy winter realist. She resolved that from now on, her trust would be
hard won and that she’d always be suspicious that people—especially men—were out to fulfill their own selfish desires at her
expense.

More than two decades would pass before God, in His own triumphant way, would show her that it is He Who controls the seasons.

J
aci Winters worked in municipal government as a supervisor in the Housing Compliance Department. She was assigned to oversee
the Hearing Coordination responsibilities of the Demolition and Abatement Division. As part of the legal process, the city
held public hearings to give property owners one last chance to plead their case before their dangerous building or inoperable
vehicle was demolished or hauled away. Jaci and her staff coordinated the hearings and made sure the information provided
by the regular inspectors was accurate before it was presented.

Although Jaci had several people assigned to her, she was heavily involved in the day-to-day operations, which included making
quality assurance on-site inspections before each hearing. Jaci was a dangerous-building investigator before her promotion
to supervisor, and she had always hated going into dangerous buildings to take pictures of the violations. She took the job
because it paid so much more than other positions and she had desperately needed the higher salary. She still hated doing
the on-site inspections, but she did it to keep her staff on their toes. There was no way they could be lax in doing their
job because Jaci made sure she was familiar with the fine points of every file. She learned the hard way she had to cover
herself.

Today, she was working with senior inspector Bill Whitmore, doing final inspections on buildings scheduled for the next hearing.
While on the way to the next address, Jaci studied the file and mentally geared herself up for whatever they would find. Dread
filled her when they arrived. The building, completely obscured by trees, overgrown vines, and weeds, wasn’t visible from
the street. Jaci and Bill approached the abandoned building, carefully searching for the best path to reach it. Wielding a
machete, Bill beat down tree limbs and underbrush to create a narrow path, and Jaci closely followed, uttering her usual prayer:
“Please, Lord, let the snakes and any other culprits lurking around be more afraid of me than I am of them.”

“You know, Bill,” Jaci said loudly, hoping to scare away anything or anyone creeping in or around the building, “I’m really
starting to wonder if this job is worth it. There’s no telling what we’re going to find when we reach that house. How long
have we been trying to get it demolished? About eight years? And the owner is still fighting to keep it up. What could he
possibly want to save it for?”

Still vigorously beating at the underbrush, Bill answered, “Probably using it for some kind of tax write-off. People have
all kinds of ways to get around the system.” When they finally reached the structure, he observed, “I don’t believe the regular
inspector has been here in quite a while. It’ll be interesting to see what’s in the file. Some of those guys make it so hard
for the rest of us. Who is the inspector assigned to this area anyway?”

Jaci flipped through the file log trying to find the last date an inspector had visited the building. “Hmmm, from what I can
determine, Daniels is the inspector, and he was here last month,” she said. “But look at the last date marked on the building—that
says six months ago. Uh, uh, uh! Daniels would be mad as heck if we reported this.”

The front door of the building was missing. They tread carefully over the rotten wood of the porch and stepped cautiously
over the threshold, only to find another decaying floor inside. Jaci lifted her camera and snapped shots of first one violation
and then another. As they moved about inside the dark structure, Bill lifted his high-powered flashlight to provide as much
light as possible.

“I don’t think we need to go any farther,” he told Jaci. “Did you get a shot of the collapsed roof and caved-in floor over
there? That should be enough to prove this one needs to come down in a hurry. There ain’t nothing anyone can do with this
except bulldoze it.”

“You’re right about that! Let’s get out of here,” Jaci said with relief.

They retraced their steps and stood on the dilapidated porch to mark the date of their visit on the front of the structure.
“Get a shot of this, Jaci,” Bill said, busily writing with a permanent marker. “I want to show Daniels that some of us actually
do our jobs.”

Jaci focused to get a close-up photo. “I like the way you think, Bill. I’m thinking seriously about showing these pictures
to his supervisor. What Daniels and others fail to realize is that they actually put people in danger when they don’t do their
job.”

As they stood there, they heard a low, threatening growl a second before a large dog with a chain secured around his neck
rounded the corner of the building. His growling quickly became loud, aggressive barking and the dog’s sharp teeth were bared,
ready for attack.

“Oh no!” Jaci yelled as she jumped off the porch and landed in a dead run. From behind, she heard a splintering noise, then
a string of curse words, as Bill, hitting a spot on the rotten porch that wouldn’t support his weight, watched his foot disappear
into a new hole.