Wings of Deception (27 page)

He laughed again
so
deep and loud that the sound
echoed
throughout the halls and rooms of the stone house and
beyond its walls
. E
ven the animals within range cringed in their skins while fleeing from the direction it came from.

                                                                              TWENTY-ONE

For some reason
Jacks decided to cancel his planned trip to New York
. He
woke up in the early morning deciding he wanted to go fishing. It was barely light when he gathered his gear and walked down the trail that led to the place he
liked best for catching bass.

A
n
hour went by and not having much luck
,
he leaned against the tree he was sitting by and dozed.

He
dream
ed
he was again a child, a frightened child that had been moved to yet another foster home. It proved to be worse than the one before
. The man was cruel and took pleasure in terrifying
the
small
boy with stories of boogiemen
while the woman
force
d
him to kneel and repent his sins every night telling him he would burn in hell if he didn’t.
He was running, looking for a place to hide when the
dream ended abruptly
and
he
had a strange feeling
he was not alone
. He
opened his eyes wide to the sight of a young man standing close to the edge of the water, fishing rod in hand
,
reeling in a fish. At first
,
he thought he might still be sleeping for the only route to th
e
spot was directly behind his cabin and no else used it besides him.

The man
was dressed in casual trousers and a long sleeved shirt and both were rolled up. Jacks made a noise causing the stranger to
look back at him
.
Th
e sun was shining in such a way that Jacks could hardly see his face.
The man
laughed
gleefully
as he took one of the nicest bass Jacks had
ever
seen off his hook and held it up.

“Nothing like it
,
huh? I mean such perfection!”

“I guess.” Jacks came to his feet
about to caution the stranger that he was trespassing
,
when the man asked, “Creation is an amazing thing
is it not?
”

“I believe in evolution, not creation. How did you come to be here, it
is
a private road to my house?”

The man concentrated on
putting the fish back into the water
and answered without looking back at Jacks.

“
How I came to be here is somewhat like how you came to be here, all by design of the entity that created your world.”

“Look, I do not have a lot of patience with religious
freaks
.
I am
trying politely
to
ask you to leave. You are trespassing on my property.”

The young man kept fishing.

“Religion?
Religion has nothing to do with why either of us is right here
,
right now.
Besides,
Christ
ianity is
not a religion
, it is a reality
.
It is a
spiritual union
with our creator and all about freewill. We always have a choice Jacks
’
in anything we do
.”

“How do you know my name? I do
not
know you, never
saw you
before
. Who are you?”

“Just a friend.”
He let
another
fish back into the water
gently
and smiled.
There was a noise behind Jacks
and he
spun around and seeing nothing
,
turned back to the young man
,
but he was gone.

“What the…?” There was no way
the guy
could have left without passing by him
.
Jacks looked closely around where the man had been standing
and could find
no evidence of anyone having been there
….
not even a foot print
on the bank.

“You got to start getting more sleep, now you
are
hallucinating
?
”
murmured Jacks.

He
cast his line where the
hallucination had been standing and was surprised when he caught more fish in less time than he ever had
before. H
e
pondered this
morning
’s events
as he took them up to
his
cabin to clean.

He decided to
invite several of his friends to come over to help eat all the fish he caught. He had
practiced
the southern way of frying fish and devised his own recipe for the hushpuppies he liked so well.
It turned out to be more
of a party than he planned
,
with many more people showing up than he intended.

Long
after the food was gone
,
the party continued on with drinks, music and dancing under the stars, but even with all the fun and laughter, Jacks kept remembering the strange event of the early morning.
He was not
able to fully convince himself that
it was a figment of his imagination.

It was a wild and crazy night and when he got up the next morning there were
three
of his buddies sprawled on the sofa’s and floor and he did
not
even remember getting into his bed. As he always did when he had too much to drink, Jacks
’
swore it would be the last time.

He let
the guys
sleep until noon and then roused them, fed them all pancakes and sent them home. He
needed
to be alone to figure out why he
was feeling
that something just was not right.

It was a
peculiar
feeling and
he found himself wishing he was still talking to Honey.
H
e backed off their friendship
because
he was certain there was no future for him and someone professing to be a Christian.
He kept telling himself that
,
but in reality he felt a stronger pull toward her than he wanted to admit. What he could not understand was
….
why
?
It was something that both intrigued and scared him. He wondered if it were possible that after all the years and all the women
with which
he had been
that
if he was
now
feeling 
genuine
love.
He wondered
also
if that was the reason he was feeling as if there was something wrong
.
O
r
was it that he missed the long talks he had been having with
Asa
?
The connection there was every bit as intense as the one he felt for Honey
,
only of
a different
nature
.

At first he refused to believe the story
Asa
told him on that first visit
,
but the proof he had was undeniable and Jacks’
felt
it
had to be
the truth.  The conflictions of his emotions kept him
awake
many nights before he finally went back to the stone house
for a second visit
. 
His feelings slowly started to change
,
as
Asa
led him deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of the minds subconscious. The scales on his spiritual eyes became thicker and he began to believe all that
Asa
shared with him. He once again became a student and
Asa
was his teacher
,
as well as his paternal grandfather
,
for the story he heard on the first night was one that wrenched
his
heart and bonded him to
Asa
,
as only blood could do.

Thinking back on their first meeting
,
caused
him to long for the remote spot where the stone house shielded
Asa
from the harm many wanted to befall him.
The pull was so strong he could not deny it.

He made plans to go the next weekend and was eager for the week to pass

It was a full week
of dealing with court orders and social services.
On Wednesday
,
there was a case to be heard in Philadelphia and Jacks
had
to be there.

Maybe he had lunch at the City Limits because the food
was good
or
maybe
because he
hoped that Honey would be having her lunch there also
. It
surprised
him
at the disappointment he felt when he had finished and she had not walked through the door. It caused him some consternation for
he realized
the connection he felt between them was far from the romantic interludes which filled his past.
He left the
restaurant amazed at the realization that he really cared for this
woman
in a way he never had before and
he
had no idea what to do about it.

He spent the rest of the day in court and when he left he ran into Andrew. They knew each other casually from the Bowler case and
he
stopped to chat for a minute. He asked about Carol and got the update Sheila had already shared with him. He was glad the little girl was home and doing surprisingly well for someone who was not expected to live. It was a shame she still could not see and he asked Andrew to give the
family
his good wishes.
Before leaving
,
Andrew
gave some
general
news about people he knew Jacks had met and
finally
told him
that Honey was preparing to leave on a trip. This was something Sheila had not mentioned and he was curious
.
When t
hey parted
,
h
e called Sheila and asked if he could swing by. She was just getting
home
but was delighted he wanted to come for an out of the office visit.

She met him at the door.

“Hey Jacks! Come on in, I am making us some tea. You want hot or iced?”

Jacks walked through the opened door and followed her to the kitchen taking in details of the makeover along the way.

“
Iced.
You really
have
made a difference here Sheila. Love the wood work!
”

“Thanks, I could not have done it without all the help I got from
good
friends here.

“I am just a bad friend, huh?”

“
Nooo
…we both see how your place is coming.” They both laughed. “Or
,
are you getting anything finished out there?”

“Slow
….
but there has been
some
progress since you were there. The old guy doing the work does it alone without any help except for his
nephew
sometimes
,
but he
’
s doing a great job. By and by it will get there. So
,
how is
life  going
for you here? You still liking the small town feel?”

He took a glass of iced tea
,
while she sat down with
hers
hot.