Soul Awakening
By Doug Simpson
By Doug Simpson
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If you missed out yesterday's post, catch Chapter One here.
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Chapter 2
The Woman In The Park
Dacque exited the 7th Street Apartment Complex and turned north on 7th Street. The previous day, he had walked south, and as he had no specific errands to attend to, then today's adventure must be awaiting him somewhere to the north. As he approached Olive Avenue, the street light turned red, indicating, based on previous experience, that he was supposed to cross 7th Street, so Dacque obediently continued west on Olive, unencumbered for three blocks, until once again directed by another red light at 10th Street. Crossing Olive Avenue and proceeding north on 10th, Dacque began to suspect where he was being led by the Powers-That-Be, but that was fine with him. He cherished his walks through MacDunnah Park, and the opportunity to listen to the melodious song-birds that resided or visited the lush gardens in this oasis in the middle of chaos. Dacque dodged the sparse traffic at Lime Avenue, crossed to the west side of 10th Street, and entered the park.
The colorful flowers and the flowering bushes, whose names he never seemed to be able to remember for long, were coming into full bloom and the aroma was heaven sent. There were a few folks around, but because it was a school day, the terrain was reasonably peaceful. Dacque took the east path, parallel to 10th Street, and strolled along in seventh-heaven. At the central, east-west path, he veered left towards the center of the park where the most-beautiful flowers and abundance of shaded benches resided.
Opting for the circular path, Dacque noticed a woman on a bench to his right, with her face in her hands. As he shortened the distance between them, he could hear her sobbing, but decided that it was most-appropriate that he discreetly walk-on-by, pretending to ignore her. Fat chance. In his head, as clear as if it were spoken in his ear by some elf sitting on his shoulder, he heard, "Oh no you don't! Get back there!"
Dacque commenced an immediate U-turn, without signaling, and was fortunate that he had no tail-gaiting foot-traffic to wreck-havoc for. Backtracking to the woman on the bench, he stood in front of her for a long moment. When it became obvious that she was unaware of his presence, Dacque slowly approached the bench and settled in beside her. "Are you okay, Miss?"
The woman lifted her face from her hands, obviously startled, and Dacque immediately noticed the blood-shot eyes and tears trickling down her cheeks. "I'm just wonderful!" she blurted out, sarcastically, "Please leave me alone."
"I can't do that! God told me to help you!"
The young woman glared at Dacque, open-mouthed. "What did you just say?"
"God..........told........me.......to........help........you!"
The two of them silently sat there, sharing a park bench on a quiet spring morning, and stared into each other's eyes.
Finally, the young woman wiped the tears from her cheeks and said softly, "Say that one more time so that I'm completely clear on what I think I am hearing."
"God told me to help you. He occasionally leads me to people who need His help."
The staring session resumed. Eventually, Dacque could detect the faintest smile beginning to appear at the edges of the young woman's makeup-less lips. "I am certainly not prepared to believe what you are telling me, and fortunately for you, you do not appear to be a dangerous character, so I will give you an opportunity to convince me that you are not an escapee from the loony-bin."
"Fair enough! I accept the challenge!" Dacque replied. "As I walked by, I noticed you with your face in your hands, and then heard your sobs, but kept on walking. Then, I heard, as clear as I hear you now, 'Oh no you don't! Get back there!' "
"And that's how God speaks to you?"
"Usually. When I am awake, and when I am ignoring his previous instructions. He also pays me visits when I am asleep or in a semi-conscious state. I can't swear to you that it is God. It is hard for me to accept that God would actually bother to deal with me directly. It could be an Angel or one of God's helpers. The instructions I receive always involve doing good, never evil."
"Okay, I'm still not admitting that I believe you, but I will listen to you, at least for a few minutes. So, how are you supposed to help me?"
"I don't know, yet, because I do not know why you were crying. I also have not been told what I am to do."
"I'm really not in the habit of sharing my problems with total strangers on park benches."
"I should hope not. I am not asking you to tell me anything about yourself, just why you were crying? Do you have a pain in your belly? Did a pigeon poop on your head? What caused the tears to flow on this beautiful spring morning?"
The young woman smiled. Dacque thought it was a beautiful smile. "Nothing like that. I guess you can say that I am just down, depressed. It was such a beautiful morning, I wanted to get out of my apartment and enjoy some of this wonderful spring weather, but after I sat here for a short while, my problems seemed to return and my bony shoulders were too weak to support them."
"Are your legs okay?" Dacque enquired.
"Yes, just fine. Why?"
"I love to walk around this beautiful park. I come here often. Instead of sitting here and talking, what do you say we walk and talk?"
"That's fine with me."
Dacque stood up, and lifted his left elbow away from his side. The young woman understood the invitation and looped her arm around his. "Anyone watching us will just assume that you are taking your old Grandpa for a morning stroll." The woman squeezed his arm in reply. "Okay, tell me about this big weight on your shoulders." he said, as they sauntered along the paved pathway.
"I am a legal secretary, a recently unemployed legal secretary. I moved here to Anywhere about six months ago, from Dallas, when my boyfriend was transferred here, and quickly found a job in a local legal-office. Then, a couple of months ago, my boyfriend informed me that he was moving back to New York, where his ex-wife and two little kids live, with the intention of attempting a reconciliation. Obviously, I was not part of his new plan. I decided to keep the small apartment that we shared, as I had a good job here, really liked living here, and to just wait and see how things progressed. To make things worse, about a month later, the lawyer whose secretary I was, was transferred to another office in Miami, and, as the most recent hiree, I became surplus. They did give me a nice three-month severance package, much more than they had to, but I was now unemployed. For the last month, I have been trying diligently to obtain other reasonable employment, but with no luck. I am obviously not destitute, yet anyway, but deserted here in Anywhere with no relatives or close friends. This morning, on this beautiful day, I just could not hold-in all of the pressure any longer, and the tear-dam burst."
"I understand," Dacque said, sympathetically.
"Has God got any miracles up His sleeve for me?" the woman asked after an elongated pause.
Dacque laughed. "Not that he has informed me of, yet, but I have no doubts whatsoever that He is working on it this very second. Do you know how to pray?"
"I guess so, but I must admit that I have not had much practice at it in a long while."
"That's not a big problem. When you settle into bed tonight, say a little prayer. Explain your current problems to God, and ask Him to work out a solution for you. Do not just say one prayer, but keep praying over and over again until you fall off to sleep. Can you do that?"
"I guess so."
"Good."
Dacque and the young woman walked around the park, arm-in-arm, for almost two hours, chatting casually and getting cautiously acquainted. With noon approaching, Dacque asked if he could treat her to lunch, and she accepted. After a very enjoyable lunch, they said their good-byes outside the restaurant. Dacque handed her a card, his card with his name, address and phone number on it, that he had printed up years before when God first started talking or sending messages to him, or maybe that was when he first started listening to what God was saying. The young woman, who appeared to Dacque to be in her late twenties, never told him her name, address, or telephone number, which was fine with him. A young lady, alone in the city, had to be careful about these things. If she wanted to meet him again, he had opened the door for her, and that was all he could do.
The Woman In The Park
Dacque exited the 7th Street Apartment Complex and turned north on 7th Street. The previous day, he had walked south, and as he had no specific errands to attend to, then today's adventure must be awaiting him somewhere to the north. As he approached Olive Avenue, the street light turned red, indicating, based on previous experience, that he was supposed to cross 7th Street, so Dacque obediently continued west on Olive, unencumbered for three blocks, until once again directed by another red light at 10th Street. Crossing Olive Avenue and proceeding north on 10th, Dacque began to suspect where he was being led by the Powers-That-Be, but that was fine with him. He cherished his walks through MacDunnah Park, and the opportunity to listen to the melodious song-birds that resided or visited the lush gardens in this oasis in the middle of chaos. Dacque dodged the sparse traffic at Lime Avenue, crossed to the west side of 10th Street, and entered the park.
The colorful flowers and the flowering bushes, whose names he never seemed to be able to remember for long, were coming into full bloom and the aroma was heaven sent. There were a few folks around, but because it was a school day, the terrain was reasonably peaceful. Dacque took the east path, parallel to 10th Street, and strolled along in seventh-heaven. At the central, east-west path, he veered left towards the center of the park where the most-beautiful flowers and abundance of shaded benches resided.
Opting for the circular path, Dacque noticed a woman on a bench to his right, with her face in her hands. As he shortened the distance between them, he could hear her sobbing, but decided that it was most-appropriate that he discreetly walk-on-by, pretending to ignore her. Fat chance. In his head, as clear as if it were spoken in his ear by some elf sitting on his shoulder, he heard, "Oh no you don't! Get back there!"
Dacque commenced an immediate U-turn, without signaling, and was fortunate that he had no tail-gaiting foot-traffic to wreck-havoc for. Backtracking to the woman on the bench, he stood in front of her for a long moment. When it became obvious that she was unaware of his presence, Dacque slowly approached the bench and settled in beside her. "Are you okay, Miss?"
The woman lifted her face from her hands, obviously startled, and Dacque immediately noticed the blood-shot eyes and tears trickling down her cheeks. "I'm just wonderful!" she blurted out, sarcastically, "Please leave me alone."
"I can't do that! God told me to help you!"
The young woman glared at Dacque, open-mouthed. "What did you just say?"
"God..........told........me.......to........help........you!"
The two of them silently sat there, sharing a park bench on a quiet spring morning, and stared into each other's eyes.
Finally, the young woman wiped the tears from her cheeks and said softly, "Say that one more time so that I'm completely clear on what I think I am hearing."
"God told me to help you. He occasionally leads me to people who need His help."
The staring session resumed. Eventually, Dacque could detect the faintest smile beginning to appear at the edges of the young woman's makeup-less lips. "I am certainly not prepared to believe what you are telling me, and fortunately for you, you do not appear to be a dangerous character, so I will give you an opportunity to convince me that you are not an escapee from the loony-bin."
"Fair enough! I accept the challenge!" Dacque replied. "As I walked by, I noticed you with your face in your hands, and then heard your sobs, but kept on walking. Then, I heard, as clear as I hear you now, 'Oh no you don't! Get back there!' "
"And that's how God speaks to you?"
"Usually. When I am awake, and when I am ignoring his previous instructions. He also pays me visits when I am asleep or in a semi-conscious state. I can't swear to you that it is God. It is hard for me to accept that God would actually bother to deal with me directly. It could be an Angel or one of God's helpers. The instructions I receive always involve doing good, never evil."
"Okay, I'm still not admitting that I believe you, but I will listen to you, at least for a few minutes. So, how are you supposed to help me?"
"I don't know, yet, because I do not know why you were crying. I also have not been told what I am to do."
"I'm really not in the habit of sharing my problems with total strangers on park benches."
"I should hope not. I am not asking you to tell me anything about yourself, just why you were crying? Do you have a pain in your belly? Did a pigeon poop on your head? What caused the tears to flow on this beautiful spring morning?"
The young woman smiled. Dacque thought it was a beautiful smile. "Nothing like that. I guess you can say that I am just down, depressed. It was such a beautiful morning, I wanted to get out of my apartment and enjoy some of this wonderful spring weather, but after I sat here for a short while, my problems seemed to return and my bony shoulders were too weak to support them."
"Are your legs okay?" Dacque enquired.
"Yes, just fine. Why?"
"I love to walk around this beautiful park. I come here often. Instead of sitting here and talking, what do you say we walk and talk?"
"That's fine with me."
Dacque stood up, and lifted his left elbow away from his side. The young woman understood the invitation and looped her arm around his. "Anyone watching us will just assume that you are taking your old Grandpa for a morning stroll." The woman squeezed his arm in reply. "Okay, tell me about this big weight on your shoulders." he said, as they sauntered along the paved pathway.
"I am a legal secretary, a recently unemployed legal secretary. I moved here to Anywhere about six months ago, from Dallas, when my boyfriend was transferred here, and quickly found a job in a local legal-office. Then, a couple of months ago, my boyfriend informed me that he was moving back to New York, where his ex-wife and two little kids live, with the intention of attempting a reconciliation. Obviously, I was not part of his new plan. I decided to keep the small apartment that we shared, as I had a good job here, really liked living here, and to just wait and see how things progressed. To make things worse, about a month later, the lawyer whose secretary I was, was transferred to another office in Miami, and, as the most recent hiree, I became surplus. They did give me a nice three-month severance package, much more than they had to, but I was now unemployed. For the last month, I have been trying diligently to obtain other reasonable employment, but with no luck. I am obviously not destitute, yet anyway, but deserted here in Anywhere with no relatives or close friends. This morning, on this beautiful day, I just could not hold-in all of the pressure any longer, and the tear-dam burst."
"I understand," Dacque said, sympathetically.
"Has God got any miracles up His sleeve for me?" the woman asked after an elongated pause.
Dacque laughed. "Not that he has informed me of, yet, but I have no doubts whatsoever that He is working on it this very second. Do you know how to pray?"
"I guess so, but I must admit that I have not had much practice at it in a long while."
"That's not a big problem. When you settle into bed tonight, say a little prayer. Explain your current problems to God, and ask Him to work out a solution for you. Do not just say one prayer, but keep praying over and over again until you fall off to sleep. Can you do that?"
"I guess so."
"Good."
Dacque and the young woman walked around the park, arm-in-arm, for almost two hours, chatting casually and getting cautiously acquainted. With noon approaching, Dacque asked if he could treat her to lunch, and she accepted. After a very enjoyable lunch, they said their good-byes outside the restaurant. Dacque handed her a card, his card with his name, address and phone number on it, that he had printed up years before when God first started talking or sending messages to him, or maybe that was when he first started listening to what God was saying. The young woman, who appeared to Dacque to be in her late twenties, never told him her name, address, or telephone number, which was fine with him. A young lady, alone in the city, had to be careful about these things. If she wanted to meet him again, he had opened the door for her, and that was all he could do.
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Soul Awakening is part of the 12 days of Christmas feature here at Downright Fiction. Every day will see a new chapter excerpt on the website. Come back for Chapter 3 tomorrow!
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Doug Simpson is a retired high school teacher who has turned his talents to writing. His magazine and website articles have been published in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France and India. Soul Awakening is his first novel. Read more about Doug at dousimp.mnsi.net!
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