Devo 16
2/21/00
Good day to you all, and in case I don't see you, good week, good month, and good year! For those of you who actually read all of the last devo, you may be wondering what happens next. For those of you who didn't, I hope you have a good excuse and I expect a five page report on the themes and symbolism with a specific emphasis on the use of dramatic irony in my email box no later than next Monday--I'll drop you a letter grade for each day that it's late. But enough talk...
"Greater Love Hath No Man Than This...Part 2"
...There was little else Jennie could say or do. And later that night as she said good-bye to Mike, the thought's that had been tormenting her since she heard Mike's story came out in force and filled her with a sense of dread. She had heard that story before; not from the newspapers, but from her own mother. The only difference was that in her mother's version, the gunman was Jennie's father. Her head swum as she began realizing all the implications this could have. She was still sitting there when the phone rang. Getting up slowly, Jennie walked over to the phone and answered.
"Hello?" Her voice was shallow and emotionless.
"Is Jennie Smith there?" a man's voice responded.
"This is her.?"
The voice on the other end didn't answer right away and Jennie thought she heard him taking a deep breath. "Do you know who this is?"
Jennie's eyebrows drew together. "How should I?"
"You don't recognize my voice?"
For a brief moment, Jennie thought that Mike might be playing a nasty prank on her, but the voice did sound vaguely familiar.
"Hello? You still there?" the man asked. And then in yet another heart-wrenching instant she recognized the voice she hadn't heard in thirteen years.
"Dad?" she said slowly.
The man suddenly got very excited, "Yes, Jennie it's me. God I miss you. How've you been? Can we meet sometime?"
Jennie didn't know what to say. Her jailbird father after thirteen years in prison for killing a cop, who never wrote once or even tried to spend time with her before prison suddenly wants to see her? "I don't think that's such a good idea." She finally said.
"Jennie, I've changed. I'm not the old man you used to have. I'm a Christian now, I got Jesus in my heart and I want to start over with you before it's too late. I know this is sudden, but please give me a chance."
The words sounded sincere but they echoed through thirteen years of being told that her father was a selfish jerk who cared about nothing. And these feelings were reinforced by her memories of him snoring in front of the TV with a beer in his had. She finally answered with a curt "No" and hung up the phone as she slumped against the wall and slid to the floor.
Jennie was not herself for the next several days. She spent her time doing little, eating little. She hoped that Mike hadn't noticed but at the same time she realized that it would be nearly impossible for him not to. Her fears were seemingly confirmed when Mike called her up a week later and asked if he could come over. He said they needed to talk. Now, as she went about straightening up her apartment, all she could think about was her father and of Mike. Strangely enough, she found herself feeling concerned for her father. How would Mike react should the two of them meet. At first she recoiled at the thought. How could she be concerned for that man? Jennie had never known him as anything but a liar. And now despite his professed change for the better, Jennie could not bring herself to believe him. Maybe, she thought, her concern wasn't so much for her father, but rather for Mike. What would he do, she again asked herself. Mike certainly wasn't prone to violence she knew, but who can say what one will do when confronted with the murderer of their father? She didn't know what would happen to their relationship should Mike have to do time in jail. But even that question became moot when she realized Mike couldn't possibly love her when he found out that Masters was her father. The thoughts again became overwhelming and like so many times since that night a week ago, Jennie collapsed on her bed in tears. She was startled a moment later by a knock at the door.
Jennie quickly got up, turned to the mirror and rubbed the tears out of her eyes as best she could. Then checking to make sure she was presentable she hurried to the door as the knocking started again. Mike was there, and saying a quick 'hello' he entered the apartment. "Can I take your coat?" Jennie asked with the barest hint of a quiver in her voice.
"No, thanks. I'll hold on to it." Jennie instantly knew something was different with Mike. If his perfunctory greeting hadn't been enough, his voice was also more distant, almost as if he were addressing a casual acquaintance, not a girlfriend of nearly a year. Mike proceeded through the entryway and took a seat in the easy chair. "Can we talk?"
Jennie sat slowly down on the edge of the couch thinking of anything that could explain Mike's unusually tense behavior. The first thing that occurred to her was that he must have found out about her father and now wanted to break up with her. Again, the frustration at the unfairness of it all welled up in her. Finally she had met the one man in a million who she actually felt good around, only to find out that by some hideous twist of fate her father killed his father.
Mike meanwhile was wrestling with his own flood of thoughts. He knew what he came to say, but the words weren't there. Despite all his preparations for this moment, he was suddenly at the mercy of countless questions. Finally in frustration he shoved all the questions aside and did the last thing Jennie was expecting. Reaching into the inside pocket of his coat, Mike drew out a little box and slipped out of the chair onto his knees. In a jerky motion he held out the box to Jennie and blurted out, "Jennie will you marry me?"
Jennie blinked hard as everything she had been thinking about was forced out of her mind leaving only a blank expression on her face. "What?" Mike reached up and took Jennie's hands in his own and looked into her eyes.
"This past year that I've been with you has easily been the best year of my life. I seriously can't remember how I lived before I met you, and now I can't see how I can live without you. I love you Jennie and I would be honored if you would be my wife."
Perhaps it was the suddenness of the question, or maybe just the fact that it was the total opposite of what she expected him to say, but for some reason all thoughts of her father and the entailing problems were long gone. A smile spread across her face, equal parts joy and relief. To Mike, it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. He didn't need to hear her say 'Yes' to know her answer; the smile said it all. They both fell into each other's arms and stood there in silence for what seemed like both an eternity and a fleeting instant.
Jennie suddenly pulled away from Mike, "I've gotta call Grandma, and...and everyone!" She glid over to the phone to begin making calls while Mike excused himself to the bathroom.
Jennie had just hung up the phone after talking with her grandma and was about to call her old roommate when she heard a knock at the door. She flipped her head around to tell Mike to answer the door, but seeing Mike wasn't there and the bathroom door closed, she put the phone down and went to answer the door. She opened it to face a stranger.
"Jennie?"
Jennie recognized the voice immediately and made to slam the door in his face. The man caught the door and stepped inside. "Jennie, let me explain."
"You shouldn't be here."
"Jennie, please. I'm not the man you knew."
She was just about to respond when she heard a toilet flush in the background. She suddenly remembered Mike. Stepping back, her hand came to her mouth. Masters looked past Jennie towards the bathroom door, and as he did so, his eyes fixed on the glittering diamond on Jennie's hand.
The bathroom door opened, "So what'd your Grandma have to say about our engage..." Mike stopped as he noticed the stranger standing very close to an obviously distraught Jennie. "What's gong on?" Mike demanded taking a step forward.
Masters took in the situation in an instant, and a huge smile spread across his face. Stepping forward, he extended his hand towards Mike. "I'm Jeremy Masters," he said, "you must be my daughter's fiancee."
At the mention of the man's name, Mike froze. His mouth parted slightly as his eyes grew larger. His stance faltered and his arms hung limply at his side. His gaze moved to Jennie still standing in the doorway now visible crying, muffling her sobs with her hand. Mike looked back to Masters and immediately saw the resemblance between the two. The same blue eyes, the rounded chin the same tapered lips that seemed ready to smile at any instant. "Daughter?" the words slipped over Mike's lips as he struggled to find some explanation for who this man was. Maybe it was another Jeremy Masters, he thought briefly. But the face of the man before him could not be mistaken for anyone else. It was a perfect match down to the scar on the left cheek.
To describe Mike's emotions at that moment would be impossible. Here before him stood the man he had sworn revenge on all his life, the man who had left him fatherless. And right besides him stood his daughter, the woman Mike had just proposed to and loved with everything he had. Mike in one instant wanted to kill Masters a thousand times over, he wanted to hold Jennie tighter then he had ever before and pretend it was a dream. He wanted to run away, he wanted to scream, he wanted to die. Mike couldn't stand still any longer and looking at Masters and Jennie once more he rushed past them. His walk down the hallway became a run, and slamming his palm against the door frame, he disappeared down the stairwell.
Masters looked over to Jennie who had stepped to the doorway in an attempt to stop Mike. "What's wrong?"
Jennie didn't answer but stood looking down the hallway. "Jennie. What's wrong?" he repeated, this time taking hold of her shoulders and turning her towards him.
The sound of squealing tires split the silence and Jennie answered. "That was Mike Richards." When she saw this meant nothing to him, she went on. "The son of Brett Richards, the cop." It took only a second for the name to register and only another second to decide what to do. Taking Jennie's hand he turned and started down the hallway. "We'll take my car," he said.
Bursting out of the apartment complex the two ran to his car. Looking down the road they could see a pair of taillights rapidly retreating in the distance and swerving slightly. Masters jumped into the drivers seat and reached across to unlock the door for Jennie. As he did so, a little green covered book fell out of the breast pocket of his flannel shirt and fell on the seat. He picked it up and handed it to Jennie as she slid in. "I want you to have this. It's why I came over in the first place." Jennie took it without even looking as Masters started the engine and stepped on the gas.
Jennie had by this time settled into a kind of dazed dissociation with the events going on around her. She looked at the book he had given her and saw the words "New Testament" inscribed on the front. "What are you going to say to him?" she asked.
Masters thought for a moment as he whipped around a corner. "I don't know." He finally said. "What can I say?" The car bounced slightly as the paved road changed to gravel. The taillights in front of them, while growing closer had now become slightly obscured due to the dust being thrown up by Mike's car. Suddenly the taillights ahead flared bright red as the car stopped. Jennie wondered at this for a second when the harsh whistle of a train suddenly focused her attention on the railroad crossing sign approaching on their right. "Oh my God." she breathed.
Masters slammed on the brakes causing the car to fishtail slightly and dust to envelop them. "Get out." he said quietly. Jennie starred at him, "What?" "Jennie! Don't argue and get out of the car!" He said again this time more forcefully.
Jennie slipped off her seat belt and looking back at her father opened her door. She hadn't even time to close to door when Masters stepped on the pedal and sped away leaving a torrent of dust swirling about.
The train whistle blew again, now much closer than before. Just then the train appeared from behind a shelter belt that lay along the cornfield to the left. As its headlight fell on Mike's car, the whistle began blowing again, this time more frenetic than before. Jennie could do nothing but watch as her father's car raced towards the intersection. Jennie expected to see the car stop at any moment and see her father take off running to Mike's car to save him. She glanced at the train now only about a hundred yards from the intersection and saw the sparks leap from the tracks and heard the terrible screeching as the train tried desperately to stop. The three vehicles were now close enough to see all together; Mike's car sitting dumbly on the tracks, the train lumbering forward in a futile attempt to stop, and her father's car now picking up speed. They converged in an instant. Master's car reached the intersection first slamming into Mike's car only a split second before the train reached the intersection. The sound of the impact coupled with the wailing of the train's brakes were deafening, completely drowning out the scream that tore itself from Jennie's throat.
The train finally came to a stop a short distance down the track leaving in its wake a path of twisted metal and shattered glass strewn along the tracks. The conductor evidently was able to alert the authorities because Jennie could hear the sirens in the distance as she breathlessly approached the train tracks. As she looked over the bits of wreckage through tear blurred eyes, an ambulance came to a stop on the road as EMTs shot out of the doors and began the search for wounded. Jennie stumbled across the tracks to the far side not daring to look at the main body of wreckage that was jammed under the front of the train engine. She stopped when she looked down the other side of the train. "Over here!" she cried as she took off running behind the train.
Fifteen minutes later, Mike Richards had been extracted from his car, which lay by the tracks, and placed in an ambulance which sped off back towards town. Jennie was escorted to the back of a police cruiser where she sat while the officers began searching for the body of her father. As she sat there her thoughts turned to the New Testament her father gave her. She opened up the front cover and read the words there. "To Jeremy Masters from Rev. Moody. May you always remember your commitment before the Lord today." The tears were again welling up in Jennie's eyes as she began flipping through the pages. Noticing several highlighted verses she stopped at one and read. "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
THE END
Valentine's Day is now a week over, and whether you spent that day with a boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse or with friends, the idea and concept of Love is still applicable. I hope that none of us ever face the situation that Masters did in the story, but I do hope that all of us will look for ways to show Love in our relationships with others--and this through putting others before ourselves and letting God take care of our needs.
Next week will be shorter, I promise :)