“Just to
serve Him means so much.”
“To me,
it means everything.”
He looked
down at the body.
“You did well
here.”
“You
brought him in and killed him.
I
just made certain he went to hell.”
“I know
we had words earlier, Ted, but I’m not angry with you.
I’m just frustrated by the
situation.
We don’t know where she
is.”
“I
couldn’t avoid the moose, Kenneth.”
Kenneth
moved to speak, but said nothing.
“And you
couldn’t have either.
It was huge.
It was angry.
It charged at me.
Tell me how you would have avoided it.”
“I would
have put my faith in God.”
“But the
moose is one of God’s creatures.”
“It’s
one of his
lesser
creatures.
Do I need to remind you of Genesis 1:26?
‘And God said, let us make man in our
image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’
You had control over that moose.
Through God, you had
dominion
over it.
And yet you ran from
it.
With the full weight of God in
your heart and in your soul, you should have stood firm against it.
But you didn’t.
Instead, you ran.
He would have protected you, you
know?
There was no need to have
run.”
He
raised his hand before Ted could respond.
“Look, what’s done is done.
There’s no time to argue.
Can we at least agree on that?
Let’s just let this one go.
Before long, it will be dark.
We’re losing time.
We need
to get out of here.”
“Where
to?”
“Back to
the truck.
When it turns dark, we
can’t use flashlights.
If we do,
she’ll see us.
So, we’ll use the
goggles.
That way, if we don’t find
her before dark, we’ll at least be able to see where we’re going and not get
lost.
Better yet, because they’re
equipped with infrared, we’ll be able to see her if she’s hiding
somewhere.
To ease your mind, we’ll
also see any animal that might come around us.”
As they
left the dead man and the area, Ted Carpenter followed Kenneth Berkowitz out of
the woods, fully aware that by the way Berkowitz was treating him, he was
actively positioning himself as the leader.
Ted was, at that moment, literally
following him out of the woods.
This was a shift from how they usually worked.
Before this job, they always worked as a
team.
They worked well together,
played off each other’s strengths.
Mistakes had been made by both man in the past, but they never had been
singled out and ridiculed as Kenneth had just done to him.
This was something new, but why the
change?
Arrogance.
It was
too blatant to ignore.
He was twice
Kenneth’s age, and yet he was disrespecting him.
He recalled a verse from 1 Peter 5:5:
“Likewise, you who are younger, be
subject to the elders.”
It was
right there.
He thought of it
earlier, he knew Kenneth knew that verse, and yet he was going against it.
He was sinning and the sin was against
Him.
It infuriated him.
He needed Kenneth to get him to the
truck, but then he would have to take charge, regardless of the costs, until he
felt Kenneth was back on track and they could work as a team again.
He
watched the young man move the branches aside in front of him, not holding them
for him but allowing them to snap back with such force that they nearly struck
him.
This is how
Ted’s father was―a brute and a bully.
He’d taken it from him for years before
he decided he no longer could take it any longer and cut his throat in front of
the bathroom mirror.
He
didn’t want to do that to Kenneth, but if he continued to sin and offend his
elders, he’d at least have to consider it.
Or talk to him about it first.
Maybe a good, strong talk would bring him back in line.
He’d remind Kenneth of Proverbs
23:26:
“My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.”
And then
he thought of Ephesians 6:4, if only because he considered himself something of
a father figure to Kenneth:
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up to
the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
So
depending on how their talk went, discipline, at the very least, is what it
might take.
CHAPTER
TWE
NTY-FOUR
When
they reached the truck, daylight had waned.
But they made it through the woods.
They came upon no other hunters, no
other animals.
They were safe
now.
They were in the clear.
The road
was quiet.
The truck looked as if
it hadn’t been tampered with.
Everything appeared good and right.
God was with them.
God also
was the reason they chose this place that was so far away from anywhere, it was
barely there at all.
Monson,
Maine.
A place where you could drag
a whore into the woods and let her fend for her life until the decision was
made to end it.
But the woods
weren’t all that Ted Carpenter imagined them to be.
The moose, for instance―he never
saw tha
t coming.
And Lord
knows, he never thought he’d have to run from one, only to get lost.
Getting lost surprised him because they
had studied the woods so carefully.
And then there was the hunter, bursting through the trees, only to be
killed by Kenneth and sent to hell by him.
They were
being challenged as a team, and he personally was being challenged by Kenneth,
who now was opening up the large plastic storage box that was at the front of
the truck bed and removing from it the tactical night vision goggles they’d
wear when it got dark.
He watched
the young man before him and wished that, in his youth, he had been as
similarly focused when it came to doing God’s work.
He respected him on that level.
He just needed to bring him around and
let him know that, as God saw it, it was he who was in charge.
“Kenneth,”
he said, “can we have a word?”
“We don’t
have time for a word, Ted.
We need―”
“We have
time, Kenneth.
I need to have a
word with you now.”
The direct
tone of his voice made Kenneth look up at him.
He met his eyes―those ice blue
eyes framed by the thick dark lashes that caused every woman to melt when he
approached them at bars like The Grind―and held his gaze with an
unflinching authority Kenneth hadn’t seen in them before.
Generally,
Ted’s eyes were without emotion―at least that’s what his mother used to
say about him when she was
alive (“They look dead to me.
You
look dead to me.
What’s
wrong
with you?”).
It’s
also what some of his teachers used to say to her.
They’d tell her that they were worried
about him.
No friends.
No social activities.
Just him and his worn-out Bible, the
reading of which took precedent over school work.
Since his mother was a God-fearing
woman, she protected him when it came to his Bible studies, but she also told
him that learning math and English and history also were important.
“You’ve
got to make time for all of it, Teddy,” she said to him one day, when another
concern arrived from one of his teachers.
“Yes,
Mama.”
“Just do
enough to get some average grades―nothing spectacular because the good
Lord knows you don’t have anything spectacular in you―then you can get
out of there and become the holy-rolling preacher we all know you want to
be.
You can gather your flock
then.
You might even be happy
then.
Happy enough that it will
show in your eyes.”
“Yes,
Mama.”
And
that’s what he did.
He graduated
with a 2.1 GPA, which was enough to get him out of high school with a solid D
average and start thinking about his future.
In front
of him, Kenneth shifted.
“What do
you need to say, Ted?”
“That
you’ve been sinning.”
“That
I’ve been what?”
“Sinning.
You’ve been sinning.
I don’t think you realize it because
things are tense again, but you’ve been sinning.
You need that brought to your attention
and you need to correct it before it’s too late.”
“Too
late for what?”
Ted
pointed a finger toward heaven.
“Too late for Him.”
Kenneth
screwed up his face at him.
“What
are you talking about?
How have I
been sinning?”
“I’m
your elder.”
“So what
if you are?”
“What
does the scripture say about your elders, Kenneth?”
His face
went blank for a minute.
The Bible
said plenty about elders.
Ted could
tell he was trying to decide where he had made an offense, but he wasn’t
willing to wait for him to figure it out.
“
You’re trying
to lead this operation―you said you were the ‘Chosen One,’ whatever the
hell that means―when we’ve only ever worked together as a team.
You’re trying to establish yourself
here, trying to push me aside and take control, but I won’t have it.
1 Peter 5:5 says that ‘Likewise, you who
are younger, be subject to the elders.’
Have you forgotten that?
By
rising up and trying to run the show, by having an edge in your voice when you
speak to me in utter disrespect, you are sinning.
For your soul’s sake, I suggest you
repent.
Because unless you repent,
you will perish.”
“I
disagree.
I don’t see how I’ve
sinned.”
“Are you
arguing with me, or with Him?
There’s a big difference, Kenneth, and I’m not the only one
watching.
You know what you’ve
done, you know the tone of voice you used with me when I got lost in the
woods.
You also know how you’ve
treated me since.
Get on your knees
and repent.
Bow down now and repent
or perish.
Listen to Acts
3:19:
‘Repent, then, and turn to
God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that time of refreshing may come from
the Lord.’
Are you hearing me?
Are you hearing Him?
Your choice, boy, but I pray you make
the correct one, because I’d hate to work without you.”
And
Kenneth Berkowitz, who never had bowed to anyone except to God, thought of what
Ted said to him and came to the conclusion that he was right.
He had sinned against his elder.
He had spoken to him with a
condescending edge.
He lifted his
head to the sky and closed his eyes, which became moist after a moment of shame
and regret.
Sometimes,
he felt that all of this was too much, too tiring and taxing, but he had to
believe that what he was doing with Ted was right and worth the effort.
If he didn’t believe that, then what was
the point?
What was the use of
doing any of this?
Just as
Ted had lost his way in the woods, he was on the cusp of losing his way with
God.
He put his hand on Kenneth’s
shoulder, nodded at him and dropped to his knees.
In the
distance, there was a disturbance in the air.