Chapter 65

Is morning already? I ask myself. Caesar is right there next to me. Wake up to dog breath is not the way I would choose to wake up. Waking up next to a naked woman who you love is the proper way to do it. Nothing else is better than that.

I grab my phone, check for text messages. Just one from Ashlee. Dad in hospital. Car fell on him. Heading out to check on them personally. Call me. Love you.

I call.

"Hello." Ashlee says once she answers.

"Hey, how are things?"

"I'm fine. Kind of freaked out, but I'm fine."

"How is your dad?"

"I don't know. When I called mom, she was in tears with worry. Dad and Pedro were working in the garage and the truck they were working on fell off of a jack and the truck fell on dad. Pinned him to the floor for about 20 minutes. Pedro couldn't get it off of him and they had to wait for the ambulances and firemen to come and help get it off of him."

"Geez. He is lucky to be alive."

"Yes, I know. What will happen if he dies? What is my mom going to do? What is going to happen to the farm and the resort?"

"Ashlee, calm down. Everything is going to be fine. Your mom and dad impressed me as being prepared for everything so I'm sure that their death will not change very much. It'll be fine."

"I hope so." She was quiet for a moment. "Paul, will my dad go to heaven or hell?"

"Big question. I don't know. Only God knows for sure. The Bible says that if we believe in him who saves us, we spend eternity in heaven. If we don't believe, we suffer punishment for our sins. Jesus paid the price for our sins, who is going to pay the price for his sins?"

"He will." She barely said the words. Coming to the realization that your parents aren't perfect is tough. Finding out that they may suffer for their sins for all eternity is even worse.

"Ashlee, there is still time. Witness to him. Gently and lovingly tell him of the saving grace that you and Brenda have accepted. Maybe this near death experience will be enough to get him to open his eyes to the truth. Tell him about what you have experienced and why he should believe like you do."

"Ok. I've never done that before. What will I say?"

"Ashlee, You won't need the words. Say a quick prayer, standing outside of his door. Or just talk to God while you are driving. He will give you the words. Trust him to be there with you and for you and everything will be OK."

"You think so?"

"Honey, I know so."

She was quiet for a minute and I heard a sniff, like she had a runny nose.

"You ok?" I asked her.

"I'm fine. But having a runny nose and crying make it hard to drive." She joked with me.

"Well pull over, blow your nose and I'll say a quick prayer for you."

"Ok, hang on." I heard the blinker sounding off and the faint noise of the brakes as she pulled over. Then I heard the loud sound of a person blowing their nose. Not the most pleasant noise, but it had to be done. Another honk of a nose being blown and then she came back on. "Thanks honey."

"Ok, here goes. Heavenly Father. Ashlee is heading to see her dad who you have spared. You saved him from losing his life before she could witness to him. You protected him all these years for this moment in time when his daughter could stand by his bed and tell him the Good News of your salvation. She is your servant; she is doing your work. Be there for her. Give her the words that you want her to have. Use her to save her dad's soul for the glory of heaven and for the glory of Jesus, your son. Ashlee and I believe in the grace you gave to us freely and we believe that you will do a good work today. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen."

Another nose blowing and then she comes back. "Thanks honey. I needed that." One last nose blow and probably eye wiping. "Ok. I'm ready. I have God with me. He is going to give me the words all I'm going to do is be his mouthpiece. We can do this." She said with real confidence. "I'm going to tell him my story. God is going to do all the work. We are going to do this!"

"YEAH!" I said loudly into the phone. "Do THIS!"

"YEAH!" She said loudly back at me. We were pumped up and she was going to do this.

"Love you, go to it."

"Love you. Talk later." She disconnected the phone call and I sat back in bed. I just smiled at her enthusiasm; her passion for serving God and saving souls.

"Look out satan, here comes Ashlee and Jesus!" I laughed again and then started my day.

Caesar and I went outside to potty. Well, not me, but him. I cleaned up his mess and then we went back upstairs so that we could eat breakfast. I got dressed and decided that working out in the building's gym sounded like the right thing to do.

I found Karen on a stationary bike riding at a pretty good clip. She had her headphones in and didn't notice me coming in. I walked passed her and got on one of the elliptical machines and started my warm up. I had my phone playing music and my warmup passed quickly. I started working upper body on one of the machines.

"Hi. Its Paul isn't it?"

I took my headphones off and responded to Karen. "Yes, that is correct." I held out my hand to her and we exchanges pleasantries.

"I wanted to thank you again for driving in the snow to get us groceries. That was really great of you."

"You are welcome. I was happy to help out."

I got the feeling that she wanted to ask me something more, but her body language just didn't tell me what she wanted. She had her legs crossed at the ankles and was doing a little spin move rubbing her legs back and forth. She had her arms in front of her and was biting her nails. I just didn't understand.

"Well, thanks again and enjoy your workout." She turned on her heels and left. I put my ear buds back in my ears and went back to my work out. I got up a good sweat and when I left, my arms and legs were burning from the exertion. Feel the burn!

When I got off the elevator, there was a note on my door. Paul. If you want to come for dinner or hang out, let me know. -Karen

'Well that's not good.' I said to myself as I came inside. 'Doesn't she know I'm engaged to be married to my perfect woman? This could get messy.' I muttered while crumpling up the note and tossing it away. I did make a phone call down to the front desk. "Hey, its Paul upstairs. One of the other tenants left a note on my door. Someone named Karen."

"Yes sir. Karen is on the fourth floor if I remember correctly."

"Well, if Ashlee found out that one of the other tenants was hitting on me, it could get ugly. I really like living here and another woman hitting on me is not going to make living here very easy. Could you speak to her for me?"

"Yes sir. Not a problem."

"Oh, and one more thing. She and I were in the gym today, could I get a copy of that footage as well please? Just in case."

"Of course sir. I'll have our security people get right on that."

"Thank you."

"Yes sir."

Hey, if Ashlee was going to hear about this, I wanted to make sure she had all the facts. I was not going to do anything that would mess up our relationship.

ring ring I check my phone. Ashlee was calling.

"Hey."

"Oh Paul." Ashlee was in tears. I couldn't tell if she was happy or sad.

"What is it? Are you OK? Is your dad OK."

"Paul. Dad heard me out. I think he accepted Jesus! I think he did."

"AWESOME!! Tell me everything." A wave of relief washed over me. I hadn't noticed, but I was all tense about the event. I know I left it in God's hands, but part of me was anxious about the outcome. Now that it is here, i feel relieved.

"Well, when I arrived, dad was resting in his hospital bed. Mom and he were talking but when i came in, they stopped talking and just looked at me, like I was some sort of alien from another planet. Mom asked me what happened to me? I told her everything about going to stay at Amber's, about going home and the New years party we went to. We then started talking about how dad was. He broke a couple of ribs which were bothering him and he has a small fracture in his hip to go along with other various internal injuries. He showed me his stomach and it is all just one giant bruise. Well, I started out by hugging him and crying on his shoulder about the accident and saying how happy he didn't die. I told him that God saved his life so that he could be here at this moment to hear about the saving grace Jesus offers us. mom of course scoffed at the idea and got a bit testy about it, but I just went on. I told him about how God's gift of everlasting life in heaven is waiting for him if he puts his faith in Jesus. I mean Paul, I gave him both barrels. I went after him about the way he talks. The things he has done that I didn't even know about. then, get this. then I asked him, who is going to pay the price for your mistakes?"

"really? What did he say to that?"

"He got real quiet and didn't answer very quickly. A tear fell from his eye at first. Then more and more and eventually he was crying like a baby and all I could do was sit next to him on the bed and hold his hand. When he finally ran out of tears, he said that he would pay the price for his mistakes, for the error of his ways and that really scared him. I mean, Paul, I could tell that it really scared him. She shook he was so scared of that."

"Wow, another physical moment of spiritual warfare right before our eyes. Ashlee, this is incredible."

"I know. So I asked him, do you want to be saved and allow the salvation that Jesus made possible for us through his death on the cross for yourself? He simply nodded his head and then I said the prayer that your mom and dad said for Brenda and I and he prayed right along with me. He got saved honey! Isn't that wonderful?"

"Oh honey, wonderful falls so short to describe this moment. I, ... I don't even know of the words that could describe this moment. This goes past wonderful, past awesome, this ... this ... Well I just don't have the words."

"I know." she said. "Hang on." She blew her nose then came back to me. "I can't believe that I got to be part of this."