Blind Seed Read online

  All of what followed could have been avoided by simply allowing to the girl to come to daddy.

  Chapter Three- A Stone...

  Boyd Glover, known to his colleagues as Falling Rocks, was the accidents specialist of the Southeastern Crew of the Directions. A geologist by trade, he worked in North Carolina as an independent researcher on the North American tectonic plates under a grant from the North Carolina Geoscience Division. He was currently in year three of the five-year project. In between climbing and studying rock formations formed millions of years ago and looking for fault lines, he took odd jobs causing accidents that eradicated bad men from the planet.

  A native of Ohio, growing up in Lima, he left for college in North Carolina, never really coming back to the state other than to visit his Nana, or granny, who raised him and his sister. Years later, after the passing of his Nana Roma, he asked his sister to move to North Carolina with him, but she had opted to stay in Ohio. A friend of the family called one evening with disturbing news about his sister and her new line of work.

  He was angry and ready to end the life of any man who touched his baby sister or paid a dollar for her time or did nasty things with her girly parts before going home to his own family who knew nothing about the extra money and predilections of the paternal patriarch; and he planned to handle it. He rolled into Lima to find out his sister had moved to Elyria. In Elyria, he found the corner where she worked, the women who worked with her, who informed the Big Guy his sister was on watch duty with the Archangel. Armed with directions to the Pastor’s home, he had a bone to pick with the man boning his sister under the guide of laying hands in the name of the Lord. Boyd Glover took that as a sexual term for deviant behavior with a pastor and headed to the stone house where she was performing this service.

  What he found was a pale man, riddled with fever and half out of his mind. His sister was playing nursemaid to the man and he wanted answers. He began yelling, which snapped the Archangel out of his fog.

  Boyd yelled, “Explain what is happening here!”

  Abby, a red-headed bit of a spitfire, smiled at her big brother, excited to see him, and jumped up to provide her brother a hug. “Pastor Gabe is sick. He ministers to us since the people of this damned town won’t let us in any of the churches because they say we are unclean. Wait...how did you get inside of his house?”

  “What in two humps on a camel are you talking about?”

  “When Nanna Roma died, she had a lot of medical bills which ate up the insurance. She also had a second mortgage on the house. I was able to keep the house, but I just wasn’t making enough at the diner, so I got a side gig in Elyria, which paid a lot more,” she said, touching Gabe’s head for fever.

  Boyd yelled, “A side gig selling your ass?”

  “I wasn’t doing it in Lima, so no I never boffed any of your friends or mine from high school or anything,” she told him.

  “Abby, why didn’t you call me? I asked you to come live with me. I would have taken care of you,” Boyd said. “What you’re doing is unacceptable.”

  “I make three to five grand a week, tax free, and get a discount on condoms and free medical checkups since a local doctor is a regular,” she said. “We made enough last year to get us a place of business, offer massages, and more. I’m making a good living.”

  “As a sex worker, Abby? A sex worker?”

  “Oldest profession in the world, and it pays well. We even have a dental plan now,” she said, as Gabriel groaned, trying to get up and drawing Boyd’s attention to the sickly man.

  “And this hump?”

  “He’s our spiritual leader,” she said, smiling at Gabe. “He didn’t show up Sunday to meet us for our service so I came out to check on him and man am I glad I did. He was on death’s door, but I knew the Lord wasn’t done with him, so me and Benita, that’s my business partner, have been his nursemaids.”

  “Does Pastor Gabe also get a happy ending?”

  “Boyd Glover, you take that back! Pastor Gabe is a good, decent, God-fearing man who has never once made an advance or treated us like anything other than children of the Good Lord.”

  “Whatever,” Boyd said, pulling up a chair to help his sister take watch over the man.

  By the end of the day, Boyd Glover had helped the Archangel to the bathroom twice and also aided him in getting a hot bath. At the kitchen table, after his sister Abby left for work, Boyd stayed with the man. He even prepared a light meal which they shared. Weak, but very coherent, the Archangel looked at the big man.

  “You were brought to me for a reason,” Pastor Gabe told him.

  “Yeah, and what reason would that be other than to hold up upright while you took a piss to keep you from wetting your toes?”

  “I don’t believe in coincidences or accidents,” Gabriel said with a weakened smile. “Stay with me for a few days. I need to get to know you.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “I can get you side work to supplement the grants you’re trying to obtain, and I can even push through some of the smaller grants to get you set up as an independent researcher,” the Archangel said.

  “In return for this little nudge in the right direction, what am I going to have to do for you in return?”

  “Oh, what you’re doing, when you accept the offer, will not be for me, Boyd Glover,” Gabriel told him. “In this world, the small guy needs a champion. I am one for your sister Abby and her friend Benita. I got them off the street and set up a legitimate business. They are now licensed massage therapists.”

  “But they are still jacking off men for money,” he said.

  “If they choose to do more than massages, I know nothing about it,” Gabriel said. “I provided a choice. How they use the choice is up to them. I shall also provide a choice to you, but remember, there are no such things as coincidences. You are here for a reason.”

  “So, that’s what you consider yourself to be, a champion of the downtrodden?”

  “No, I am a warrior for the Almighty. I am the Archangel,” he said, exhaling. “I’m also tired. Can you help me back to my bed?”

  “Not yet, I need to change those sweat-soaked sheets,” Boyd said, surprised at his own words. “Good grief, how the fuck did I end up being your nursemaid?”

  “Language, Sir,” Gabriel said. “A man of your education doesn’t need such profane words to express himself.”

  Boyd Glover said no more as he escorted the Archangel to the sofa and then changed the bedding. Once he got the man back in bed, he washed the sheets and the dishes and started a hearty stew for supper. He stayed for nearly a week with Gabriel, learning about the man as he also learned more about himself. That was three years ago, and he found himself back in the man’s kitchen at a different dinner table, making the exact same statement.

  “I’m nobody’s champion,” he said aloud, in the present day, sitting at the dinner table with Gabriel, Cabrina, and Charlotte.

  Charlotte offered him the shitty smile, which immediately put him on defense. Her words, on the other hand, changed his mind, about where he stood and what he would stand for as the man chosen to be her hero. The shitty smile ebbed away, showing a serious face.

  “I’m tired of the fake smile, Falling Rocks,” she told him. “I’m tired of running. I’m tired of hiding; let him come for me, but when he comes, I need a game plan. I need to be prepared. Help me prepare for the arrival.”

  “And how am I supposed to do that?”

  “I need a job, and I need purpose,” she said. “I didn’t make the Olympic Team because I was hiding from him. I can’t have a decent job in a big city or even a crappy job in a small city. I’m just existing because I’m hiding from him. I’m done hiding.”

  “Yeah, but can you not hide somewhere else? Why do you have to not hide with me? He’s going to come for you, and now I have to deal with that nutty Muther...,” he caught himself as Gabriel shook his head no. “Why me?”

  “Because I like you,” Charlotte told him. “I don’t like a lot of people.”

  “What do you mean you like me? What the hell am I supposed to do with that bit of information? Ooh, guess what, Mr. Crazy Daddy Man with a shitload of pink glitter in his pockets? Charlotte likes me. I’m going to turn my life upside down and give up walking around my house naked so the little weird lady can live with me and go to work at the local mercantile. No!” he snapped.

  “I don’t care if you walk around naked. I don’t want none of that,” she said, looking him dead in the eye.

  Gabriel burst into laughter.

  Cabrina snickered.

  Boyd Glover found no humor in it whatsoever. When his sister Abby arrived, she convinced him that the young woman needed him as her champion. He hadn’t been there when Abby needed him as a big brother, but he could make up for it by helping Charlotte.

  GABRIEL NEARY, THE Archangel of the Conclaves of Angels for the Southeast Region of the United States, took pride in the work he was given, not only by the government, but also by the Most High. There had been times when lapses in faith had slowed his steps, but then he had realized questioning the directives sent to him either by sign or by Word was a fallacy on his part. It took years to listen to the voices in his head and not think he’d lost his everlasting mind. When he began to listen, he began to see. Once he began to see, his purpose on the planet changed.

  He stepped outside on his back porch for a bit of evening air while Abby spoke with her brother, and the young woman, Charlotte, sorted through the lending closet of clothing for jeans and other necessary items. He’d picked up the tracker in Falling Rock’s truck and seen the direction they were heading. True, he could have stopped Falling Rock’s before he came all the way to Ohio, but the ride back between the two of them would prove interestin
g. He sighed thinking about how it could possibly end for the two of them, and he knew he’d made the correct choice in Boyd.

  The back door creaked as it opened. The person exiting the home barely broke the current of the night air as she stood next to him. She had no scent, not even of shampoo in her hair. The soap she’d used earlier didn’t linger on her skin and the shoes on her feet barely made a sound.

  “You’ve become far too comfortable being silent, Charlotte,” he said without looking around.

  “Well, my mother’s taste in men never improved,” she added.

  “I kept watch,” he told her.

  “I know. I felt you,” she said, almost wanting to cry. “Archangel, why him?”

  “You need each other.”

  “To do what, suddenly become enamored of that brute and create dusky red-headed baby albino gorillas?”

  Gabriel started to laugh, a hearty gut-busting laugh as he envisioned the children with Boyd’s dusky blonde hair, massive arms, and huge feet trying to run. If they were Charlotte’s kids, they would be runners.

  “Archangel, it’s not funny,” she said, punching him in the arm, “since he does like to walk around naked and there is a lot of him uncovered. His butt cheeks are like chiseled stone, and there’s no fat on him.”

  “Sounds like you were looking,” Gabriel said, laughing again.

  “How could you not! There was so much of him, sucking all the air out of the small kitchen and filling it up with muscles and attitude and maleness,” she said, frowning then swallowing hard. “I half expected him to cock his leg and water the cabinet then grunt in satisfaction.”

  “Stop making me laugh,” the Archangel said.

  “Also, he doesn’t talk, but kind of barks at me,” she said, “and then, he purposely, intentionally, without a moment of hesitation ate a second helping of beans our first night, and he filled that tent with so much methane, I’m surprised we’re still alive. I think I hate him. I know I hate his butthole. That thing almost beat-boxing he farted so dang gone much.”

  Gabriel’s laughter rang out in the night air, flitting away through the darkness. When he finally stopped laughing, he turned, the dim light from the porch highlighting his silhouette. He faced her with new feelings and a fresh idea.

  “You seem to have a handle on him.”

  “He’s sophomoric and basic,” she told Gabriel.

  “He’s also a bit of a genius; he’s a geologist, a gemologist, and the leading researcher on the East Coast on tectonic plates,” Gabriel replied.

  “And the man ate a second helping of beans on purpose so he could fart all night to vex me. I was vexed. I was also close to sleeping outside in the wilderness to keep from smelling both his ass and those funky toe jam encrusted boots,” she said almost wilting. “I had hoped, at this point, my life was getting better. I have no intention of ever going back to Idaho.”

  Gabriel leaned against the railing, his hands in his pockets as he stared at her face. It hadn’t changed much over the years. The eyes were sadder and a bit sunken. She was still rail thin with the body of a runner, but she was also full of fire.

  “In your wildest dreams, what is the one thing you’d like to do?”

  Charlotte opened her mouth to talk but Gabriel stopped her. “In the next two weeks, focus on that one thing and how to bring it to life. Things are going to change rapidly in the next three months. At the end of it, you tell me where you want to be and I will make it happen.”

  “Okay, but right now, I have no money, just the burner phone you gave me and a bunch of used clothes,” she said, “I will have to rely on him.”

  “Yes. Yes, you will,” Gabriel said, offering nothing else. “Let’s head inside.”

  “Archangel, I’m tired of running. Why can’t I simply live in the open, let my Daddy come find me, and let the chips fall where they may?”

  The Archangel stopped at the entryway, holding the door open. Cool crisp air billowed past him. A million thoughts ran through his head about what to tell her and how to say it. Exhaling loudly, he spoke.

  “Your father is looking for his little girl. In his mind, he sees the 14-year-old that was taken from him,” Gabriel explained. “If he came to you now, he would see a woman changed by time and circumstance. Who do you think he’s going to blame, surely not himself?”

  “But why can’t I have a conversation with him as his adult daughter?”

  “He doesn’t think his daughter is an adult,” he emphasized. “In his head, for all we know he still thinks you’re ten. Also, you’re very unhappy, and he’s going to see that as well. Both you and your father need a minute to come to terms with who he is based on your being taken away from him and who you’ve become in being removed from his life. I’m certain you’ve wondered how your life would have been different had your mother not left Hilton Head. When the time is right, and it will be sooner than later, you will meet on even ground.”

  “I’ll be ready,” she told him.

  “I hope so, for all our sakes,” the Archangel said, leading her inside.

  Chapter Four – A Pit...

  Silence filled the vehicle as they rode. In Charlotte’s pocket were a few bills slipped to her by Cabrina, and a few more slipped to her by Abby, and Benita sent a few as well. Later, she would count the dollars to buy a pack of underpants, girlie supplies, and add a few items she liked to eat to the pantry. Her companion wasn’t happy in the least.

  “How do you know the Archangel; I mean outside of working for him?”

  “I just work for him,” Boyd said.

  “No, there is a male bonding thing between you. It’s more than just, ‘he’s my boss.’ You like and respect each other,” she said.

  “He got my sister to stop selling her ass on the street and set her up in a business where she massages men for a living and probably gives them a wank to make those extra dollars she slipped in your pocket,” he said. “What do you need to buy so I can stop on the way in?”

  “Oh wow, Mr. Sensitive. I need to get women’s stuff, a decent bar of soap, shampoo, and food that I can eat,” she said. “I also need to start a garden for some fresh tomatoes, heads of lettuce, that kind of thing, you know, veggies.”

  “May I ask what you eat since you can’t cook?”

  “Soups, salads, plates of pasta,” she told him.

  “You have to cook pasta.”

  “Not if you place it in a bowl with some water and stick it in the microwave,” she replied.

  “Well, I’m not a salad eater. I hunt most of my meals or catch them in the lake near the house,” he told her. “I also work diligently to keep track of the pH levels in the river along with the E. coli to keep the lake healthy. A healthy water source keeps all of this man here healthy as well.”

  “You’re a natural caregiver,” she said.

  He sighed heavily, filling the cabin of the truck with his discomfort. “Listen, I don’t want you in my house, but I have you. I’m not gonna make you feel uncomfortable by walking around naked or anything. None of this is your fault. You’re the victim in all of this nonsense. I don’t wanna make you feel worse than you already do.”

  Charlotte sighed loudly as well, trying to dispel the tension she felt in the small space. “Listen as well, it’s your house. Walk around naked all you want. I will not react to it or mock you if the room is cold and there’s shrinkage, we’ll be okay.”

  “Shrinkage?”

  Charlotte held up her diminutive pinky finger, folding it slowly in half. Amused at her own antics, she provided a genuine smile at him which was met with a scowl, a growl, and him once more barking words at her face.

  “Oh, now you want to give me a real smile. I don’t believe this shit,” he said and hit the turn signal to exit the interstate.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I want a hunk of red meat with a nice fully loaded baked potato, and after that, there’s a mall we can go to or one of those irritating stores loaded with families and kids so you can buy the stuff you need,” he said.

  “Thank you. I’ll buy dinner,” she offered.

  “No, hold on to that to buy you the things you need to be comfortable and set up your space in the other bedroom,” he said, almost frowning. “Dear God, what am I saying?”