“You got a kid on the way that I don’t know about?” Isaac side-eyed him.

  “I certainly do not, so that means you’ll have to live a long time, at least until I can find the woman I’m going to marry, settle down and have some kids with her.”

  “What about that woman you been shacking up with. You do know that kids come from what you’re doing, right?”

  “Alexa and I broke up, Dad. I’m not shacking with anybody. And don’t try to change the subject, because I want you around to babysit each child that I have. You owe it to me. And I don’t want to feel like I’m getting short changed just because you were ready for a rocking chair by the time I was born.”

  The heart attack had weakened Isaac, but he had enough strength to laugh at his son’s foolishness. “Watch your mouth boy. Rocking chairs have never been my style.”

  “Oh yeah, I heard that you just told mom to put a couple on the front porch. Your not going soft on me, are you?”

  “Not going soft, son. Just got old all of a sudden.”

  Jude plopped down in the chair next to his father’s hospital bed. Seeing his father laid low like this, with IVs, a heart monitor and an oxygen tank was devastating to Jude because his father had always been larger than life to him.

  “Now look whose going soft.” Isaac pointed at Jude.

  A tear drifted down his face as he said, “Do you expect me to be happy while you’re in here sounding like it’s the end?”

  Patting his son’s shoulder, Isaac told him, “I want to be here to see all of my grandchildren come into this world too, son. But if God wants to take me home, then that’s His business. I’m going to be all right either way. What you really need to be concerned with is what’s next for you? Because I’m not always going to be around to knock some sense into your head. So, you need to jump on the get right train whether I’m here or not... understand me?”

  “But what if I still need you to knock me upside the head every once in a while?”

  Isaac smirked at that. “I think I did my job well enough that you’ll remember.” And indeed he had. Back when Jude allowed his family to call him Ikee, he’d become a wanna-be thug and Isaac had to show him that he really didn’t want the lifestyle he thought he wanted.

  Isaac was far from a street thug by the time Jude came along. But by the time Jude became a teenager and tried to test the waters, he soon discovered that the street thugs still didn’t want no trouble from his father and neither did he...

  Isaac stepped into Bobby-Ray’s trap house like he had paid the mortgage on the joint. Hustlers and geekers were sprawled out all around the room. He took his time, looking each person in the face and saying a silent prayer for each person as he passed them. The devil couldn’t hold the captives bound forever... not when the saints were praying.

  “You looking for somebody?”

  Isaac swung around and came face to face with Bobby-Ray. He knew it was him, because except for the excess weight, Bobby-Ray looked just like his father. A man Isaac had ignorantly murdered and then had to watch Ray-Ray being tortured in Hell. Of course Isaac felt bad about what he’d done to Bobby-Ray’s daddy, but not bad enough to let him have his son.“You’re the man I’m looking for. You and my son, that is,” Isaac told him.

  “What do I have to do with your son?”

  “You need to explain that to me. Because the way I got it, you’ve been telling my son stories that his ears were never meant to hear.”

  With a sinister grin on his face, Bobby-Ray said, “I didn’t know that you being a murdering, thieving parasite was such a secret.”

  “Where’s my son?” Isaac asked, ignoring the obvious taunt.

  Bobby-Ray stood his ground. Kept smirking in Isaac’s face.

  Isaac took a step closer. “Careful, young man. You only know what you heard about me, but I’m way more lethal than that. Don’t make me prove it to you.”

  Bobby-Ray swallowed the lump in his throat as he stepped aside and then pointed to a room in the back.

  Isaac didn’t have anyone to watch his back like he did in the old days when he and Keith would roll up on hustlers and take care of business. But Isaac wasn’t worried because God had his back these days. He headed into the next room and immediately spotted his son handing a rock to a woman and then taking the money from her and putting it in his pocket. What Isaac saw turned his stomach. He had worked long and hard, just about moved heaven and earth to keep his son away from this kind of life.

  When Isaac had been drafted into this life, it had been because he couldn’t think of any other way to make a quick buck. His mother and brother sat at home starving because his daddy was out drinking up all the money. So, Isaac had to make things happen. But even with all the advantages his son had, Ikee still wanted to be the dope man. The thought sent Isaac into a rage as he put holy hands on Ikee and knocked him against the filthy wall, which probably hadn’t been washed in years.

  Isaac’s arm was against Ikee’s neck. He applied pressure, wanting to choke him out. Ikee desperately tried to claw the arm away, but Isaac would not be moved and Ikee was about to black out. “I’m only going to tell you this once,” Isaac said as he spoke in Ikee’s left ear. “I’m walking out of this god-awful place and driving home. When I get there my wife’s car had better be back in the garage.”

  “How did Ikee beat you home?” Nina asked Isaac as he walked through the door.

  “He was motivated,” was all Isaac told her as he strode up the stairs. He grabbed a suitcase out of his and Nina’s walk-in closet. He then stalked over to Ikee’s door and swung it open without knocking.

  “Hey man, this is my room,” Ikee said as he hopped off his bed.

  “You don’t have a room in my house anymore.” Isaac threw the suitcase at him. “Pack your stuff.”

  “Why I got to pack? Where am I supposed to go?”

  Nina rushed to the room. “Isaac, what’s going on? You can’t just throw him out. He’s not even eighteen yet.” And besides, this was her baby.

  “He’s a drug dealer, Nina. He can’t stay here because his very existence put you and the rest of our family at risk.” Isaac turned a cold stare on Ikee. “But you don’t care nothing about that, do you?”

  “You trippin’. It’s not like I killed anybody. I’m just trying to flip a few dollars so I can buy my Mustang.”

  “Ikee!” Nina’s hand went to her mouth as she shook her head. “Why would you need to do something like that? Your father and I provide everything you need.”

  “You said that I had to get a car with the money I have or find a way to earn enough to get the car that I want.”

  “We certainly never asked you to go sell drugs,” Nina declared, still very clearly devastated by the news she’d just received.

  “How did you think I was going to get my Mustang then? Nobody here was going to help me. So, I had to get my hustle on. I don’t really see the big deal. Dad sold drugs for years. That’s probably why we have this four-thousand-square-foot home and the cars.”

  “First of all, you don’t have a four-thousand-square-foot home; me and your mom own this home and the cars. Drug money didn’t buy any of it. Everything we have is because of the Lord’s mercy and grace. And I’m not about to allow a drug dealer to sully any of it.” Isaac pointed at the suitcase. “Make sure you only take shoes and clothes. That Xbox and your iPad stay here.”

  Ikee picked up his cell phone and quickly called his sister. When she answered he started mouthing off, “Your daddy is throwing me out; can I crash over there until I can get a place of my own?”

  Isaac snatched the phone from Ikee. He put it to his ear as he told Iona, “The only place your brother is going to end up in is a jail cell or a pine box. He’s a drug dealer, Iona. And he can’t stay at your house. I won’t allow him to put my grandchildren at risk.”

  “But Daddy, he’s just a kid. Where’s he going to go if he can’t stay with family?”

  “That’s for this little ninja to figure out. He wants to be a king pin, well maybe a dose of living on the streets will give him a good start so he can learn how to be hard and tough enough for his chosen career.” He hung up with Iona and then put Ikee’s iPhone in his pocket.

  Jude had been sixteen when he introduced him to the I-don’t-play Isaac Walker. Now as Isaac lay on his sick bed, not able to do much of anything, he was thankful that he had knocked some sense into Jude’s head at a young age. Because after living on his own and experiencing all that the street life had to offer, Jude had turned his life around within a week. The battle had been hard fought, but Isaac snatched his son from the streets.

  Jude might not be where God wanted him right now, but the boy would come around, Isaac was sure of it. Because he, better than anyone that the prayers of the righteous avails much, and Isaac kept praying that God would lead Jude home.

  7

  The nurse came in and told Jude that Isaac needed rest. Jude needed a little time to calm down anyway, so he stepped out of his father’s room and went back to the waiting room. Nina walked over to her son and gave him a hug.

  “Your eyes are red, have you been crying?” she asked as they walked back toward the family.

  “I just don’t like the way he’s talking... like he doesn’t have any fight left in him.”

  “Don’t fool yourself, Jude. Your daddy will fight with his last breath to stay here with us. He just wants us to know that either way things turn out, he’ll be okay.”

  Jude couldn’t help himself, he looked his mother in the eye and asked, “Are you okay with this, no matter which way it turns out.”

  Nina thought about that for a moment and then answered, “I’ve been loving your father for a long time. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to say goodbye to that man. But I’ll shed my tears now, because when that day comes I’m going to be too busy rejoicing for my husband’s entry into heaven.”

  Jude wrestled with this thought of being okay with death when there was so much living left to do. Sure, his father was eighty-five and had lived a long life, but Jude wanted him to keep on living and save all the ‘well-dones’ for another time.

  He was about to tell his mother that, but they were now back in the area where Iona and Donavan had been seated before he went into the ICU to visit with his father. But before he could open his mouth, his eyes scanned the area and noted that Johnny, Iona’s husband and Diana, Donavan’s wife were now in the waiting room. But that wasn’t what stopped him in his tracks. Marissa Allen, the girl who stole his heart and threw it back at him was also in the waiting area.

  As Jude sat down next to Nina, Keith and Cynda, long-time friends of the family, oh and yeah, Cynda was Iona’s birth mother. So, at one time, Cynda and his dad had gotten together. Since Donavan was older than Iona, Jude had put two and two together, without ever asking his parents about it. Because he figured that was probably a subject his mom didn’t want to dwell on, especially since she and Cynda were such good friends now. But at one time, his dad had been a serious mac.

  Nina hopped up and hugged Cynda and Keith. “You two were out here pretty late last night. I thought you’d be resting today.”

  “Not a chance, I had to come and let the old geezer see how good I’m getting around and get him jealous enough to get out of his sick bed,” Keith told Nina.

  But Keith wasn’t as steady as he used to be. His body shook as he spoke and he now walked with a cane. Jude still remembered when Keith and his father ran revivals from city to city. During summer breaks from college, Jude traveled with his father and Keith, passing out flyers and watching as they preached the gospel to a hurting nation. But once he graduated and started his own business, Jude didn’t have time for revivals.

  He always thought that he’d hang out with his father on one of those revivals again someday. But three years ago they held the last revival and hadn’t scheduled another since. “Hey Uncle Keith and Aunt Cynda.” Jude gave them hugs.

  “Look at you,” Cynda said. “It’s been so long since I saw you, I almost forgot what you look like.”

  “The boy looks just like his daddy. I’d recognize him in a crowd with his back turned.” Keith nudged Jude. “I’m sure it did your father’s heart good to see you.”

  Why did he say it like that? Jude already felt bad for not visiting his family much in the last few years. But somehow, Keith’s words caused tears to form in Jude’s eyes. “I’m going to step outside for a minute. Please let me know if the doctor comes out to talk to us,” he told the group as he rushed out.

  Once he was outside Jude roared like a wounded animal as he balled his fist and hit the brick building as if he was Sampson and could bring a building down with the might of his hands. With tears in his eyes, Jude looked to heaven. He wanted to pray and ask God to forgive him for turning his back on his faith and his family, but he felt so ashamed of the way he’d been living his life these past few years, that Jude didn’t know if he could go to God in prayer anymore.

  His mom taught him about loving God, but his dad taught him how to be a man and how to serve God. Jude had gone on about his way, worrying more about becoming a successful businessman than being a part of his family. Now his father had suddenly gotten old and Jude didn’t know how much time he had to make up for ignoring the man who raised him.

  He leaned against the wall and immediately felt a hand on his shoulder. Then he heard, “Are you okay, Jude?”

  Her voice was like a melody that one could play over and over and never get tired of hearing it. But that same voice had put cracks in Jude’s heart. So, Jude didn’t turn around. Too many emotions were going through him, and he didn’t trust himself not to do something stupid.

  Marissa wasn’t to be put off. “I know you’re hurting Jude. I just want to help, if I can.”

  He shoved his hands in his pockets as he turned to face her. “How can you help me?”

  She shrugged. “I probably can’t do much. But I do have a shoulder you can lean on. If that’s what you need right now.”

  Jude remembered coming to Marissa a few years back and proudly telling her about the fortune he’d made and explaining that he would now be able to take care of her. All he had asked was that they live together for at least six month before getting married. He only wanted to make sure that they were truly compatible for one another. But Marissa didn’t understand that.

  After college, Marissa had come back home and now headed up an outreach program for at-risk youth at the church. Marissa felt that she would be turning her back on her faith if she shacked up with him before marriage. Then she even questioned his faith. Finally, she informed him that since they were obviously going in different directions that she could no longer sit at home waiting on him to come to his senses.

  Marissa had then started dating Lou Marshall, one of the elders at his father’s church. As far as Jude was concerned Lou was too young to be an elder. Lou was only four years older than he. Jude had thought of Lou as a friend but the man had stolen his woman so that friendship was over. “How’s Lou?”

  “I’m sure he’s fine. But I didn’t come out here to talk about Lou. I know how close you and your father are, and I know it’s hard for you to see him like this.”

  Jude shook his head. “We used to be close. But I’ve been so busy building my business these last few years that I haven’t been around much.”

  “We’ve missed you at church.”

  The words didn’t sound condemning coming from Marissa. More like she really missed seeing him at church. He was disarmed by her comment and could only admit the truth. “I wish I had come back home more. Maybe I should have been attending church. But I guess I got caught up.”

  “I’m sure your family is glad that you’re home now.”

  “Yeah, but look what it took to get me on that plane.” Jude turned his back to Marissa, too disgusted with himself to look her in the eye. “I just wish I had been around more.”

  “You had to make your own way in the world... no shame in that.”

  Jude closed his eyes trying to block out the pain his heart was enduring because Marissa was so close to him. He had wanted to make a life with this woman, but she preferred another. A man who had given his life to serve God, while Jude had been serving himself. Just thinking of Marissa with Elder Lou made Jude feel small and useless. He couldn’t bear to be so close to her and not be able to touch her or claim her for his own.

  Marissa wouldn’t back up, she stood in front of him, and put a hand on his chest. “Stop torturing yourself, Jude. Your father is going to pull through. God is not done with Pastor Walker yet.”

  “I believe that,” he told her without admitting what he’d been thinking about. “My dad is not allowed to die. He’s been slacking on his ministry for three years now. It’s time for him to get back out there and rile up people to accept the Lord.” Jude puffed out his chest trying to look and stand like his father as he delivered the word of God. “Count up the cost, young man. Either you’re going to live for God or die with the devil you’re currently serving.”

  Marissa laughed as she playfully shoved Jude’s shoulder. “I remember him saying that. It was at the first revival I ever attended. His words made me realize that I not only wanted, but needed to serve the Lord. So, don’t make fun of my pastor and his passion for saving souls.”

  “I’m the one who knocked on your door that day, so don’t give him all the credit.” He was glad that he’d done that for her because she seemed happier now than she had been back then. God looked good on her.

  “Thank you for helping to rescue me, Jude. I’ve never forgotten what you did for me at a time I needed it most.”

  “Thanks for coming out here with me. I’m starting to feel better about things. But you might want to get back in there. I wouldn’t want Lou to come to the hospital and see you out here with me.”

  Giving him a kind-of-sort-of smile, Marissa said, “You haven’t been home in a long time. So, let me be upfront with you. Lou and I aren’t seeing each other anymore. He’s engaged to someone else.”