Chapter 1-2
Angel On My Shoulder
Part 3
Stringham started to feel much better as he smuggled into his new snowman suit of clothes, wearing nearly every layer, while the rest of us wore a warm lighter jacket. Stringham didn't care how people stared at him being so overly bundled compared to the rest of us, he simply gave the waitress a nice tip telling her to find us a nice "private" comfortable seat in the section nobody was using and most importantly under a heater. It's amazing what cold hard cash can do as we watched her slip it away inside her bra for safekeeping.
I could never figure out why a woman likes to hide things in their bra when they have pockets and purses to put things in, but in any case, Stringham got what he wanted, including a fresh pot of coffee just for him. Mom and Dad didn't tell him he'd have to give up that up or the fact he poured something from his private stash from his pocket. Knowing that too would have to change. Coffee and tea were walking a fine line and even a bottle of wine didn't go over to favorably with the LDS church, but in any case, it was his choice, free will and all.
Stringham waited as he looked at me as he waited for my answers as we waited for our second well-deserved breakfast. Tony too was very curious, so Stringham asked me to start from the top and work down to the present day regarding me and my friend Jeff. I looked over at Jeff as he watched the room, and as if he was waiting for something to happen. I waited for Jeff to tell me no, but instead, he said, to go ahead and tell them everything. Other than some things, he told me not to discuss until he had given me permission to do so. Most of it Stringham and my adoptive parents have heard and read about in my big thick file, but at the time Mom and Dad thought it was bunk and it was due to a very active imagination.
Stringham had always believed me from the get-go, but he was learning something he didn't know like Ma, and how she could see him and communicate when the need was great. He cursed me loudly for having been told not to come back by Jeff when the Downings and I were leaving the United States. Stating clearly, that was a really big mistake knowing what happened when I did; telling the Rothwells that I deserved to have my butt blistered by him personally. Dad said. "Yet if I hadn't, I would have never come into their lives and turned them upside down and they wouldn't have me a son."
Stringham said. "True, but I am not the one that beat the living tar out of him with a cattail whip and nearly killed him. Or hiding the fact that Downings have been trying to get him back, and you refused them at every turn, calling them heathens for not being members of the LDS church. Nor allow him to see them, me or his grandmother as you locked him up and made him a prisoner in your home. If it wasn't for his friend Jeff, you would have killed him by now."
I ended the argument and said. "It's over and it's done with, It was my mistake, and it was your mistake, Pa and Mr. Steed, as well as Jeff's Dad Mr. Fry, taught me that if we don't make mistakes, we have nothing to learn from not to make them a second time. So, stop pointing fingers and stop saying should have and could have done something. In truth, none of you were ready to listen; I wasn't ready for hell's sake, even though I wish I never made that mistake more than anything. I am more than happy with how things turned out and I couldn't ask for better parents or friends. Stringham and you Dad always tell me that everyone deserves a second chance, so this our second chance to make up for things we have done."
Mom settled it said. "In any case, we are all here now, so let's put our differences aside. I for one am glad that I too get a second chance to have another son as smart and very handsome, and looks even better naked, and can make the girls howl his name over and over. To the point they fight over him who gets to have him just for a few hours alone; compared to our son Shawn who I rather strangle with my bare hands most days and more so most recently."
Mom didn't care if she embarrassed me as she kissed me and hugged the stuffing out of me. We were lucky we were in a restaurant, or she would strip me right there and take me on the table as she fiddled with my zipper and wiggled her fingers inside to fondle me under the table. She only stopped when the waitress put down our food and left my zipper open and my penis exposed, as she covered her hand over it as she waited until she left, giving a heavy sigh as she let me put it away. She didn't apologize she whispered in my ear that when we got home, She and Dad were going to have some alone time with me and Jared as she removed her shoe and used her foot to play with my pant leg knowing that it drove me crazy.
Tony said. "So," taking a few bites. "You and your friend are like two peas in a pod. He comes at your beck and call.
I laughed. "No, not always. He only comes when I need him the most. In fact, it wasn't until recently that he came back into my life. Which is always been a bad sign that things are about to get messy. Even then, he is not at my side unless it suits him. Like today, he is here because he has work for us to do, but only if it is important enough, by dropping breadcrumbs. He likes it like I have said before. It's not his job to catch these criminals.
"It's our job, and it's always our decision if we want to take his advice. And I have said the advice is not always easy to hear, nor are the tasks required to do them. Dad has taught me that you only get what you put into it, and Stringham has taught me nothing is for free. So Jeff is asking you to meet him halfway or he won't help and you can find your own way without him or his help. Personally, I would take his advice seriously because I have made that mistake, and he let me make it.
"The price I paid was losing the Downing's. All because I couldn't let go, knowing everything might have worked out in the end. I am not ready to make another mistake like that one, so if I have to humble myself and do something I don't like, I am going to do it. Like pretending I like that damn wheelchair, and like this stupid hair and makeup to keep me and my family I love out of danger.
"I may not agree with the LDS church on a great many things. I would rather meet Jeff halfway than make another mistake that costs me another loving family. So, the first thing I suggest is when we get back. Our family is going to have family home evening like we used to do. We are going to have family prayer like we used to do. And we're going to humble ourselves and bring back the spirit we had lost along the way. So, when we go to battle, we will be ready, and no matter what they throw at us, we will be ready.
"Gloria taught me words mean nothing, but our actions speak volumes. It was her actions that got her into trouble. It wasn't her words that beat me or rape me or tried to kill me and Jared. It was her actions. So let my action state that I am going to act like I am weak and helpless, and then when they believe that. I am going to use that against them and take my very big stick and my ghostly friend's help and kick their asses back to their demon god and look good at doing it.
"I am sorry Mom that Dad and I held that from you, but we are only doing it so you wouldn't freak out or think I was crazy. I don't want you to think that Jared is either, because he hasn't learned how to speak to him without using his voice. It took me years before I had learned what we call the link in the void where I can feel Jeff and I can speak to him through it. Jared finds it a little creepy that he can hear me talk to Jeff through the link and for the first time, I never had that problem where anyone beside me can hear us. Seeing yes, but communicating is a whole lot different.
"Not everyone can see Jeff. I don't know why that is unless it was intended that only special people like me can see ghosts like him or angels, but before you ask because most people do when they find out. The answer is no, I don't see other spirits, and I don't ask other people if they have seen others when they see and can communicate with Jeff. Jeff told me it has something to do with near-death experiences or special circumstances. The problem is I have a lot of near-death experiences than most people. Like my Ma, she could see him and sometimes others, but seldom can she communicate with them unless it is a great need.
"Everyone is different, like the feeling I get when I shake a person's hand telling me that they are someone I can trust, someone that is going to be important in my life. But also works the other way letting me know that these are very bad people. Jeff calls it a gift for what I have been through so I would know when he's not around that I have somebody I can talk to and depend on. But most of the time I have to use my gut like when I shake Dad's hand or you and him hold me in your arms, letting me know you both love me, and the same goes for my mother.
"Stringham knew the moment we met when he took me by the hand we both felt that connection and the same goes for Mr. Vincent and Jake's Mom. And in Tony's case, Jeff said I can trust him, even though I didn't feel that connection. It doesn't mean it couldn't happen. It just means that he needs to earn that right, and it is different for everyone. Like Bishop Sakes we didn't have that connection at first, but I knew he was a good man by his actions, but the moment he became Bishop he and I had this ability where he could see Jeff and I could feel his soul and the same with Bishop Lanwall, even Brother Niles.
"It was different with Bishop Earl. When we first met and shook hands, the feeling was so strong it shook me and drained me, so much I would be in a dream state until my body or soul became used to it. I would have a conversation with him and be telling him every secret and not know we had been talking. Or how I got there. It freaked me out so bad I was afraid to even touch him because when I did bye-bye world, and I'd wake up in the twilight zone. He would see Jeff and talk to him, but I wouldn't. Now think about that and how Jared might feel when he comes across that. He tells me that I glow every time I shake hands or touch someone with that, I have felt that connection.
"Even the Vincent two boys noticed it. I don't know why it's happened, and it's new to me. Like the thing I did for Dad finding that phone line that Shawn was using in his room, telling Crawford and his buddies where I and my friends are. Or that map I showed Stringham how that man's body didn't show up at the morgue or how to find Tony's missing men. It was like me being in two places at once. Like this morning when Jeff and I were casing the house, listening in on conversations to prove to Mom that I am not crazy. And how I knew that woman's body would show up and how and most of all how she did it.
"So, call me crazy, and don't listen to the advice that Jeff is telling you. Trust me, the cold you are feeling is only the beginning. Nothing you do will take it away until you do what Jeff is asking you to do."
Stringham nodded, and Tony said. "Kid you really do freak me out, I am thinking I might join Stringham and make every member of my team get them baptized and lead them in a song and prayer if it keeps them safe and we can have a friend like yours telling us how to take these demonized people down."
Stringham said. "Amen to that. Family home evening, prayer circles. Here we come. Damn, it's cold in here. It's like someone turned on the air-conditioner." Watching him bundle up even more, as he paid the check, and bingo was his name, O. Crawford walked in the door.