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Flanders and Lisa “Gravel ” Nickels, born-again Christians,  and their two she-unicorns, WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca, live in the countryside with a sand dunes in the front yard.  Gravel is attired in a black and yellow old-time cheerleader uniform.  Lisa’s whole family is lost in their sins; and six she-griffins—demons–want to keep them lost.  The four who live in the sand dunes are called of God to be griffin-slayers. Flanders wields in battle a scythe.  Gravel wields in battle a sickle.  These griffins need to be slain in battle before Gravel can convince her family of their need for Jesus.

THE ANGEL OF XANADU

By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy

The Table of Contents

 

Chapter I……………………………………………………………………………………………Page 1

Chapter II………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 15

Chapter III…………………………………………………………………………………………Page 29

Chapter IV…………………………………………………………………………………………Page 44

Chapter V…………………………………………………………………………………………Page 59

Chapter VI…………………………………………………………………………………………Page 74

Chapter VII………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 89

Chapter VIII……………………………………………………………………………………..Page 103

Chapter IX……………………………………………………………………………………….Page 120

Chapter X………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 136

Chapter XI……………………………………………………………………………………….Page 152

Chapter XII………………………………………………………………………………………Page 167

Chapter XIII……………………………………………………………………………………..Page 182

Chapter XIV……………………………………………………………………………………..Page 198

Chapter XV………………………………………………………………………………………Page 213

Chapter XVI……………………………………………………………………………………..Page 229

Chapter XVII…………………………………………………………………………………….Page 244

Chapter XVIII……………………………………………………………………………………Page 259

Chapter XIX……………………………………………………………………………………..Page 275

Chapter XX………………………………………………………………………………………Page 289

Chapter XXI……………………………………………………………………………………..Page 305

Chapter XXII…………………………………………………………………………………….Page 320

CHAPTER I

She stood there before him, verily a cheerleader of cheerleaders, her arms akimbo, her face entrancing, her form lithe, her voice resonant, her Spirit Holy.  And she did a cheer for God before him, chanting, “’Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.  Amen.’  I Timothy 1:17.”  And she shook her pom poms with the sensual sound of swishes and kicked up her leg and set it down and spun around in place, her skirt pleats rising from her hips for just a moment before falling back down again in her modesty.

“Encore!” her man said to her.

And she did another cheer for God, this time bending her left knee and lifting up her left leg halfway and setting it back down, then bending her right knee and lifting up her right leg halfway and setting it back down.  And she chanted a cheer, saying, “’Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;  Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to whom be honour and power everlasting.  Amen.’  I Timothy 6:15-16.”

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“My foxy Gravel!” he praised her.

“My dear Flanders,” she said back to him.

She was Mrs. Lisa “Gravel” Nickels, and he was Mr. Flanders Arckery Nickels, and they were happily married, and they were both born-again Christians living faithfully for Christ.

Gravel the Fox was again attired in her favorite outfit from her closet—her black and yellow cheerleader uniform given her by God Himself.  Indeed Lisa Nickels wore this outfit every day of her life—both as Flanders’s wife and also before having become Flanders’s wife.  Her cheerleader sweater was the following:  Made of Orlon Acrylic, it had long sleeves and a bottom hem that hugged her waist and cuffs that hugged her wrists.  It had a round collar which covered the bottom part of her neck.  This sweater in front had yellow on top, and it had black on the bottom.  Between the yellow and the black was a band of a large gray “V.”  The legs of this “V” started over her belly and climbed upward to the higher part of the sides of her torso.  And these legs thereupon continued onward across her upper sleeves right where they left off on her torso.  This “V” not only divided the upper yellow from the lower black of the front of this cheerleader sweater, but these same two legs of the “V” also divided the upper yellow from the lower black of her cheerleader sweater sleeves.  Across the upper yellow of the front of this sweater, between the legs of the “V,” was a chenille emblem of a gray megaphone with the name “GRAVEL” upon it in black large capital script letters.  As for the sleeves, yellow covered from her upper arms to her shoulders, and black covered from her upper arms to her cuffs.  And as for the back of this sweater, it had the same big gray “V” with yellow above and with black below.  Her cheerleader skirt was the following;  Made of polyester double knit, this skirt was a box-pleated skirt with over sized pleats.  The main pleats were black;  the contrasting pleats were yellow.  And these pleats reached nearly to her knees.  It had a zipper-button closure in the back.  The bottom hem of black of the sweater covered the top hem of black of the skirt.  As for the cheerleader socks, they were knee socks, black with three yellow stripes near the top—the first a narrow stripe; the second a wide stripe;

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the third a narrow stripe.  As for the cheerleader sneakers, they were canvas sneakers, black, with yellow soles and yellow shoestrings and yellow tips.  And in this cheerleader’s hair were two ribbons abounding in black and yellow.  And her pom poms were extra large, all in black and yellow.

This cheerleader wife was a beautiful woman with an unblemished and light white countenance.  She had eyes of brown.  She had hair of black.  Her strands were much wisps across her bangs and down the sides of her head to upon her shoulders and down the back of her head to her upper back.  She was slim of frame and slight of girth.

Right now the cheerleader and her admirer were in their beloved sand dunes—a large sand dunes in the countryside in their land.  This was most of their front yard.  Their home was a most unusual—and somewhat cumbersome–living quarters.  Flanders called it “a red brick house series.”

Gravel called it “a campus.”  It was a place where each room was itself a building of red brick.  Their living room was a house with a mansard roof.  Their dining room and kitchen was a house with a lean-to roof.  Their bedroom was a house with a hip roof.  Their den was a house with a gambrel roof.  Their utility room was a house with a flat roof.  And they had an outhouse among their property.   These six unconnected “rooms” all lay in this countryside yard at the top of the hill in back of these rolling sand dunes.  Between the sand dunes and the gravel road that went by out front here was a little patch of wild countryside hard on bare feet.  But the sand dunes were easy on bare feet.

In the midst of their sand dunes was a lone tree.  It was a little tree.  It gave the coolness of shade in the heat of the sand.  And about this right now did the cheerleader say, “Flanders, let’s climb the tree again.”

And he said, “It is so little a tree for the both of us to climb.”

“Indeed it is almost too small for the both of us to be in it,” she said.

“Were we to fall out of this tree, we would not have to worry about getting hurt,” he said.

“It is small and short,” she said.

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“All of our other trees are tall and big,” said Flanders.

“Oh, but Husband, those trees are not here in these sand dunes,” said Gravel.  “This one is.”

“Last one to our tree is a rotten egg,” teased Flanders.

And they raced to the lone little tree of the sand dunes.  Being the cheerleader, Lisa Nickels got there first.  “Rotten egg!” said Gravel, pointing to Flanders in fun.

“No man can beat a cheerleader in a foot race,” he said to her.

And at once Lisa lifted herself up into this little tree.  And Flanders did likewise.  And they sat amid the leaves and the branches and the gentle breezes.

“It is peaceful being up here,” said Gravel.

“We are only five feet above the ground,” he said.

“It is peaceful down there, too,” she said.

“Our beloved sand dunes,” he said.

“Beaver is a happy place for a married couple to live,” said Lisa Nickels.

“God found it for us,” he said.

“We found it from God,” said Gravel.

“Crivitz is not far away,” he said.  “North.”

“We go there to do our grocery shopping,” she said.

“And Pound and Coleman are just south of us,” he said.

“Both have nice water towers,” she said.

“And we have your parents’ cabin down the road a couple miles,” said Flanders.

“Left Foot Creek flows through their property out back,” she said.

“They don’t go there a lot,” said Flanders.

“But Mom and Dad did give us both a key to their cabin,” said Lisa.

“I wish that Left Foot Creek flowed through our property,” said Flanders Nickels.

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“God did not give us all things,” said Gravel.

“He gave us what we needed,” said Flanders, looking out upon their homes and their land.

“And it is much,” agreed Lisa Nickels.

“We have more acreage than anyone else around here in the sticks,” said Flanders.

“And we have your nice old car, too, to travel around,” said Lisa Nickels.

“My nice little Roadster Replicar,” he said.

“And we have my beloved CasaBlanca and your beloved WhiteHouse,” said Gravel.

“Our pets the white she-unicorns,” he said.

“And their little trailer,” she said.

“Technically my trailer,” he said.  This trailer Flanders did hook up to his car when they went traveling with their white unicorns.  It was a basic flat bed trailer of wood with little wooden rails one foot high and with a wooden gate in the back,  Therein was a sturdy board to set up as a ramp for the unicorns to climb into and out of this simple trailer.

“Too bad that neither CasaBlanca nor WhiteHouse have wings,” said Gravel.

“God made two different kinds of unicorns—winged unicorns and wingless unicorns,” said Flanders.  “But our unicorns do not seem to mind being wingless.”

“They love to go on rides with us,” said Lisa.

“And they love giving us rides,” said Flanders.

‘We love riding them,” said Lisa.

“I love riding unicorns with you even more than I love cruising with you in my Replicar,” he said.

“I think I do, too,” she said.  “But I do so like your car, Flanders.  Thanks for making a set of keys for the car for myself.”

“We are a family of four, Gravel.” he said.

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“We are,” said Lisa.  “Praise the Lord!”

“Where do you suppose they are right now?” he asked.

“Maybe hunting,” she said.  “Our unicorns like small game, you know.”

“Or maybe in their garden,” said Flanders.  “Their garden has most unique vegetables that only they among unicorn kind like to eat.”

“Or they are playing unicorn games together out back,” she said.

“Maybe their game of ‘Run Around the Trees,’ or their game of “Hide in the Trees,’ or their game of ‘Maze in the Trees,’” said Flanders.

“That would mean that they are in the woods,” said Gravel.

“We have more forest in our yard than we do fields in our yard here in the middle of nowhere,” said Flanders.

“They could be working in the orchard,” said Gravel.

“They take good care of our apple trees,” said Flanders.

“Both the red apples and the green apples always taste so good in season,” said Gravel.

“Or they could be working in the grove,” said Flanders.  “The lemons and the limes that I pick from those trees for my iced tea really do great things to it.”

“I know what you mean.  I squeeze those lemons and limes into my hot tea, and what great hot tea those make for me,” said Lisa.

“Oh.  I just remembered.  WhiteHouse said that she was going to the bakery in town,” said Flanders.   That was this town of Beaver.

And Gravel said, “Oh, and I remember now that CasaBlanca said that she was going to the delicatessen.”

“Crivitz.   The big town,” said Flanders.

“They get to their destinations faster that we get to the same destinations, Flanders,” said Lisa.

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“They run faster through these countryside fields and get there more quickly than we do driving my car down these roads of loose gravel,” said Flanders.

“They always say that the quickest path between two points is a straight line,” said Gravel.

“They travel as the crow flies,” said Flanders, “except they stay on the ground.”

“And we riders of the Replicar have to make turns and fight the gravel and have only so many roads to get us there,” said Lisa.

“I remember how a visiting missionary from a foreign country once told us in church that in America ‘one could get lost because there are too many roads,’” said Flanders.

“He did not mean our part of the country,” said Gravel.

“He meant the big cities,” said Flanders.

“Like Green Bay or Appleton or Oshkosh?” asked Gravel.

“Maybe more like New York City or Los Angeles or Chicago,” said Flanders.

“CasaBlanca would not be happy were she to live in the city,” said Gravel.

“My WhiteHouse, the same way,” said Flanders.

“Our unicorns love to run the fields and the forests as free spirits,” said Lisa.

“And they love the Lord just as we do,” said Flanders.

“My CasaBlanca loves to hear me to read the Holy Bible to her,” said Gravel.

“And WhiteHouse and I share prayer requests with each other,” said Flanders.

“They come to church with us, and they come back home from church with us,” said Gravel.

“Marinette County Baptist Church,” said Flanders.  “A good independent King-James-Bible-only fundamental Baptist church,”

“With a great hymnbook full of all of the good old-fashioned hymns,” said Gravel.

“We four sing those hymns together in our fellowships here in the sand dunes often,” said Flanders.

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“Yeah.  I know,” said Gravel.  “Life is good for us two born-again believers, Flanders.”

“I’ve been sharing your prayer request with WhiteHouse,” said Flanders.

“The one I’ve been telling you?” asked Gravel.

“The prayer that you have been praying so hard all of these years,” said Flanders.

“That my family get saved,” said Lisa Nickels.  “That one.”

“Was that all right with you that I share it with her?” asked Flanders about his confidance to WhiteHouse.

“It is very all right with me, Flanders,” said Gravel.  “Anything I tell you, you can tell WhiteHouse.”

“Have you told CasaBlanca?” asked Flanders.

“She knows,” said Gravel.  “She has been praying for my family’s salvation also.”

“Four prayer-warriors praying for the same thing is better than two prayer-warriors praying for the same thing,” said Flanders.

“Our she-unicorn pets are mighty in much prayer,” said Gravel.

“Just like you and I,” said Flanders.

“I appreciate your prayers most of all for my family, Husband,” said Lisa Nickels.

“Nine lost loved ones,” said Flanders in sum.

She went on to delineate thus:  “Mom, Dad, Big Sister, Big Sister’s husband, Big Brother, Big Brother’s girlfriend, Little Brother, Little Brother’s girlfriend, and Niece, Big Brother’s daughter.”

“Gravel, you are the only one saved in all of your immediate family,” he said.

“The rest are all lost,” she said.

His whole family was saved, but he still prayed most fervidly for her family with empathy for his wife.

“Those demonic griffins out there don’t make it easy for them to want to get saved,” said

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Gravel.

“Six griffins,” said Flanders.

“Six different sections of my family,” said Gravel.  There was one griffin that spoke to Mom.  There was one griffin that spoke to Dad.  There was one griffin that spoke to Big Sister and her husband.  There was one griffin that spoke to Big Brother and his girlfriend.  There was one griffin that spoke to Little Brother and his girlfriend.  And there was one griffin that spoke to Niece.  Griffins, by nature, were sent by the Devil to do demons’ work.  These six particular griffin-demons, by deceit and lies and half-truths, convinced these nine unsaved family members that they did not need Jesus to get to Heaven.  And whenever Gravel spoke the Word of God to her family, their demons came along right after and took away God’s Word out of their hearts.  And these same demons constantly offered these nine lost members of Gravel’s family all manner of delights of the world with which to enjoy that took their minds off of God.  And, at the persuasion of their griffins, these nine did go and commit many sins—indeed more sins even than the common sinner, these nine sinners provoked directly by their own griffins.  Like their father the Devil, these six griffins used temptations to beguile their nine victims into godlessness and unrighteousness and unholiness.  But above all, these griffins made sure that their nine people stay clear of any desires to hear about Jesus the Saviour of the world.  Further, whenever the Holy Spirit said to them, “Thus saith the Lord,” they said right back to them, “Yea.  Hath God said?”  And these demonic griffins indeed did very good work for Satan.

In encouragement after this thoughtful silence, Flanders said, “Good Lisa, there is no heart too hard for God to soften.  There are no eyes too blind for God to open.  And there are no barriers too strong for God to break down.”

In understanding, Gravel said, “Our God is stronger than six griffins.”

She thought about her sickle.  He thought about his scythe.

She said, “God gave me my sickle to slay my griffins.”

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And he said, “And God gave me my scythe to slay your griffins.”

“And I have my CasaBlanca to fight at my side in battle against my griffins,” said Lisa.

“And I have good WhiteHouse as my comrade in battle against those griffins,” said Flanders.

“Before I can get my family saved, I have to have those six griffins dead,” said Gravel.

He reminded her, “God is stronger than six griffins.”

“I call it ‘My Dream of Dreams,’ as you know, Husband,” she said.

“Dream of Dreams,” he said.  “Your life dream that your whole family find Christ as personal Saviour,”

“Christ is the difference between eternity in Heaven and eternity in Hell,” she said.

“Jesus saves,” he said in gentle encouragement.

“I discovered a verse of great revelation yesterday in my Bible study,” she said.

“Tell me it,” he said.

“It’s Exodus 20:3,” she said.  And she recited it, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

“Ah, the first commandment,” he said.

“My family members each have a certain thing in their lives that are more important than God to them.  These are those ‘other gods’ in that are mentioned in that Bible verse.  They love these things, and they do not love God.  Do you want to know what they are, Flanders?”

“Idols!” he said.  “Do tell me your family’s idols, Lisa.”

Gravel said, “Mom has her jewelry box.  Dad has his motorcycle.  Big Sister has her husband.  Big Brother has the game Scrabble.  Little Brother has the casino.  And Niece has her cartoon character ‘Reiner’ that she draws.”  Gravel then said, “I do not know the other family members enough to figure out what their false gods are.  Those six whom I have mentioned are the most near and dear to me of my family.”

“One would think that all God needed to do to get their attention would be to take these things

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away from them, and then they would start thinking about the true God,” said Flanders.

“But then their next best idol would become their new best idol,” said Gravel.  “Like every lost

person, they put Jesus last after every other god in their lives.  The griffins would see to it that my family find new gods to occupy their time and keep their hearts away from Christ.”

“Alas, good Wife, it is written, ‘…, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:  For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.’  Acts 28:26-27,” said Flanders Nickels.

She sighed and said, “As it is written, ‘…, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live;  turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?’  Ezekiel 33:11.”  As with the house of Israel in Old Testament days, so with her family in these days of the church age.

“Keep the faith.  Rest in hope. The Lord is the God of love,” said Flanders.

“’And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity,’  I Corinthians 13:13,” recited Gravel.  This “charity” meant “love in action.”

“For is it not written, fair Gravel about our Good Lord, ‘Who will have all men to be saved, and to come into the knowledge of the truth?’” asked Flanders.

“It surely is,” said Gravel, encouraged in the Lord.  “I Timothy 2:4.”

“Wouldn’t it be real neat if they came right here to get saved, Lisa?” asked Flanders.

“Here in our sand dunes out front here?” she asked.

“Yes, right here in our sand dunes,” he said.

“I’ve been praying for that,” she said.  “Right here in the sand dunes.”

“My own most beautiful place in the world, Lisa,” he said.

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“And my own most beautiful place in the world, too, as you know, Husband,” said Lisa Nickels.

“What better thing in our sand dunes than to have your Dream of Dreams to come true?” asked Flanders.

“And what better place for my Dream of Dreams to come true for me than right here in these sand dunes?” asked Gravel.

Gravel at once jumped down from their little tree upon the sand.  She took a little branch from the tree, twisted it, and pulled it off.  Then she began to write in the sand with it.  Flanders looked on from in the tree.  When she was done, there were the words, “Dream of Dreams.”

“Beautiful, my wife,” he said.  “Beatific indeed.”

“I love it, too,” she said.

“A woman could write a book about these sand dunes were her whole family to pray and get saved in these sand dunes,” he said.

“What do you think would make a great name for our sand dunes, Flanders?” she asked.

“I want to come down and join you,” he said from up in the tree.

“Jump down and join me, Flanders,” she said, her writing stick still in her hands.

He leaped and landed upon his feet before her.  Husband and wife looked down upon her writing in the sand.

Gravel asked again, “What do you think would make a great name for our sand dunes were my family to pray and accept Christ as Saviour here?”

“These sand dunes are a little Heaven to me here in my life in Beaver with you, Lisa.  Having them to myself is a good thing, and having them with you is a great thing.  But just thinking about you leading your family to the Saviour in these sand dunes, why even the dictionary might not have a word so celestial to describe this place were that to happen here,” he said.

“It has to be a Heavenly word,” she said.

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“Dream of Dreams.” he said, searching for just the right word for this Dream of Dream’s dream place right here,

“It has to be all about a Paradise,” she said.

“I think that I might know a name to give this place,” he said.  “It is referred to in a famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and it is also referred to in a song by Olivia Newton-John.”

“What’s the word?” she asked.

“It is ‘Xanadu,’” he told her.

“Xanadu?” she asked.

“Xanadu,” he said.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“I see this place Xanadu as an idyllic place, as an exotic place, as a luxurious place,” he said.

She spoke not for a moment as they ruminated.  She said, “These sand dunes are already in themselves idyllic and exotic and luxurious.  So much more would they become idyllic and exotic and luxurious were my Dream of Dreams to happen here right before my very eyes,”

“What a prayer meeting that would make right here were you to lead your loved ones through the sinners’ prayer, Lisa,” he said.

Both were silent in divine and blessed reveries for a while.

Then Gravel wrote in the sand with her writing stick again.  She wrote this second message underneath where she had written her first message.  Husband and wife looked upon it.  They read it in silence.  They spoke not.  It read, “Xanadu.”  This sand dunes of this time could become the Xanadu of the times to come.

Then her husband spoke and said, “Fair Lisa, you know how soul-winners are often called, ‘messengers from Heaven,’”

“I do, Flanders,” she said.

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“And you know that some of God’s angels are called ‘messenger angels,’” he said.

“Like Gabriel himself,” said Gravel.

“Why, fair Lisa, you could become like an angel of Xanadu,” he said.

She dared to contemplate such a title.  Were God to use her as a witness-warrior to her family here and were they to agree to her to lead them to Christ and were they to actually become born-again believers like herself and like Flanders, and were all of this to happen for real right here in these sand dunes, she could be, in a symbolic way, an “angel of Xanadu.”

She looked into Flanders’s face.  She pondered due words for so captivating and exultant ideas that he had spoken.  And she said, “I could, through Jesus, become indeed ‘The Angel of Xanadu.’”

He nodded his head in silent and Godly assent.  She nodded her head in silence and assent as well.  And their thoughts went up to Heaven, where Jesus was.

Just then their she-unicorn pets came galloping home from their trips to town.  WhiteHouse said, “Master, I’m home.”

And CasaBlanca said, “I’m back, O Mistress.”

And Flanders said, “Welcome back, good girl,”

And Gravel said, “It’s good to see you again, girl.”

And the mistress kissed CasaBlanca on her head, careful not to bump her unicorn horn with her head.  And the master put his arms around WhiteHouse’s neck and gave her a good long hug.

The unicorns then discovered the two writings in the sand, and they inquired about that, and Lisa “Gravel” Nickels told them all about what these words meant to her now.

And CasaBlanca said, “I’ll keep praying for them, Mistress.”

And WhiteHouse said, “And I, too, O Gravel.”

 

 

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CHAPTER II

What did the houses look like that this family of two keepers and two pet unicorns live in?

Do remember that Flanders and Lisa Nickels lived together in six separate buildings in a group of rooms.  As for the she-unicorns, WhiteHouse lived in the west stable and CasaBlanca lived in the east stable.  These stables were a short distance from the main buildings of their keepers and they were both located on the edges of the sand dunes to both sides.  WhiteHouse’s stable was full of loose straw and bales of hay for its floor. CasaBlanca’s stable was full of mowed grass clippings and piles of raked leaves for its floor.  Other than that, being unicorns, they desired no other luxuries for their humble homes.  These stables measured ten feet by ten feet by ten feet.

As for the living room, which was the building with the mansard roof, Flanders and Lisa got together on the sofa to watch TV together.  This room measured fifteen feet by fifteen feet by fifteen feet.  And there were three windows in each of the four walls, and there were three windows in each of the four sides in the roof above that.  And the TV was in front of a sectional sofa in the center of the

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room.  Together the two watched Billy Graham Crusades and Franklin Graham Festivals on TV.  Billy Graham was a Godly counselor to many American presidents.  And Franklin Graham was not afraid to say that Islam was an evil religion.  And though Gravel and Flanders held Billy Graham in high esteem, they both disagreed with him when he said that there was no fire in Hell.  The Holy Bible said that Hell was all about fire.  And they also watched Jack and Rexella Van Impe, but they knew that he was wrong in his approval of the Roman Catholic Church and his many memorized New King James Version Bible verses.  As Flanders said along with Gravel, “Only the Authorized King James Version Bible verses should be memorized.”  And they watched videos of a great champion of creationism.

But he seemed to overlook or deny the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Some evangelists did not preach hellfire-and-brimstone.  Some evangelists did not preach the blood atonement.  Some evangelists did not warn of false teachers and false teachings.  But the two did have their good Baptist pastor at Marinette County Baptist Church down the road as a final authority of Bible truth in his sermons and his classes.   Where televangelists were wrong, Pastor Preamble did not fail to preach the whole truth of God to his flock in church every time the doors were open for a service.  He was a lot like Paul the Apostle as the shepherd to his flock.  And in this living room, for lights at night, there was a brass floor lamp with an incandescent one-hundred watt light bulb in each corner.  By mutual consent both said that the daytime was no time to have the lights on, neither in sunny days, nor in cloudy days. And on the walls were sixty-six magic marker posters with the names of the sixty-six different books of the Bible upon them—in red or in blue or in black or in green.  Some were taped on the walls with masking tape; some were taped on the walls with scotch tape.   These were written by Gravel and were put up by Flanders.  This was the living room.  This was a house made of red brick.

Next came the house with the lean-to roof.  This was the building for the kitchen and the dining room.  This building measured fourteen feet by fourteen feet by fourteen feet at its highest point.  The higher roof of the two covered the dining room, and the lower roof of the two covered the kitchen.

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Where the ceiling of the dining room was way above the heads of the two who lived here, in the kitchen the ceiling was not far above their heads.  A long wall divided the one room from the other.  And the doors were at both far sides of this wall.  And a big open space with no window lay in the wall between, whose base was up three feet from the floor and whose top was one foot from the ceiling of this lean-to roof and whose sides were next to the two doors.  Here in the kitchen next to this wall was a long preparing table for Gravel with a cutting board and a counter for food preparation and a high shelf for cooking appliances.  Here in the kitchen was also a little card table for the two to eat together at home along with two metal folding chairs.  As for the dining room, in here was a grand dining room table and several dining room table chairs of teak.  This part of the house was for the fellowship breakfasts and fellowship lunches and fellowship dinners that Gravel prepared for those of their church.  Gravel and Flanders had regular visits from their brothers-and-sisters-in-Christ that they had invited to come over and to eat with them.  And the flock of Marinette County Baptist Church always had good things to say about Gravel’s cooking after having eaten there.  In her hospitality, not one person of the church flock had been overlooked after numerous home-cooked meals here in the dining room.  And she did the cooking, and Flanders did the setting up and the cleaning up and the washing of the dishes and the drying of the dishes.  What a dining room table did the Nickels family have. Indeed it was given to Flanders as a gift of appreciation from a man whom Flanders had led to Christ on Thursday Evening Visitation early in Flanders’s days as a member of their good Baptist church.  That same man afterward went on to follow God’s call to the pastorate in home missions in Upper Michigan.  In fact this man was the first man invited to dine with Flanders and Gravel with their brand new dining room table and chairs.  His name was Regal Royal Sixpence, and right now he was inspiring a revival in Marquette on the shores of Lake Superior.  These were the kitchen and the dining room.  And this house was made of red brick.

Also in this collection of houses was the bedroom with its hip roof.  This building measured

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thirteen feet by thirteen feet by thirteen feet.  In here was the official prayer room for Flanders and Lisa.

Flanders prayed alongside his bed.  Lisa prayed upon her bed.  And in prayer meetings together between husband and wife, they knelt upon the braided elliptic rug between the two beds.  Flanders’s bed he had piled on ten pillows, plus one pillow for his head.  Lisa’s bed she had piled on ten stuffed animals, plus a stuffed unicorn upon her pillow.  These were both twin-sized mattresses.  Flanders’s closet was in the north side of this room, and in it he had his many church suits and ties with which he dressed up for church.  And Gravel’s closet was in the south side of this room, and in it she had a special little chest like unto a treasure chest, measuring three feet wide by two feet long and one foot high.  In this she did store all the appurtenances of her cherished black and yellow cheerleader uniform—including her ribbons and her pom poms.  These cheerleader clothes were neatly folded up and set randomly into this chest before she went to bed for the night.  And she did neatly take them back out of the chest when she got dressed the next morning.  Flanders was not allowed to touch this treasure chest.  Only her King James Bible did she hold in more reverence than she did this chest and its cheerleader apparel.  But Flanders could touch her Holy Bible.  In the ceiling of this bedroom was a little trap door that led up to the attic.  And this building, having a hip room, allowed only a small attic with a very low ceiling.  They could go up into the attic only by way of extension ladder, which they had on the floor next to the east wall where was neither closet door nor bedroom door.  There was in the attic important tax papers and insurance papers and other business papers that they had got in the mail and that they needed to keep.  And there was also the title deed to this property of the sand dunes, written up by Near North Realty, which was located in Crivitz.  And here also were their birth certificates.  This was the bedroom.  And this building was made of red brick.

And there was also the den and its gambrel roof.  This den measured twelve feet by twelve feet by twelve feet, and it looked like unto a little barn.  This den was where Flanders and Gravel sat down to read the Bible.  They read alone here.  And they read together here.  They read in silence here.  And

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they read out loud here.  This den not only had their own personal King James Bibles, but it also had a little library of sundry and divers other books along many shelves all throughout this room.  Each of these two Bible students had their own Bible-study desks in this den.  Flanders’s desk faced the window that opened out onto the orchards.  And Gravel’s desk faced the window that opened out onto the groves.  The desk that Flanders had was like unto a draftsman’s desk—with a desk top rising upward at an angle from the front to the back and a projecting board at the bottom of the desktop and with a little open cubby to the left by his knees for pencils and pens and markers and with a little open cubby to the right by his knees for papers and notebooks and index cards.  His chair was a swivel desk chair like unto office workers’ chairs in a work cubicle.  The desk that Gravel had was a conventional school desk with a flat top that opened upward with hinges in the back and with a large repository within beneath the desk top.  In there she had her highlighter of different colors to draw in her Bible as she read the lines.  Her chair was a little wooden chair very simple and very sturdy.  As for the other books of this den, Flanders had his books of English literature, and Gravel had her books of American literature.  Flanders studied Shakespeare, and he had this to say about the bard, “Even though Shakespeare’s plays and the King James Bible were all written in the 1600’s, I can understand the Bible, but I cannot understand Shakespeare.  I’m happy for the footnotes.”   And Gravel read Edgar Allen Poe, and she said,  “I like Poe’s short stories, and I like Poe’s novel, and I like Poe’s poem ‘The Raven,’  He’s even a mystery writer.  But my favorite is ‘Eleanora—A Fable.’”  This building was the den.  And this house was of red brick.

There was also the utility room, which had a flat roof.  It measured eleven feet by eleven feet by eleven feet.  Here was the furnace and the water heater and the pump and the washer and the dryer and the fuse box and a gas meter and an electricity meter and a shower stall and a bathtub and a little sink and a toilet and a medicine cabinet and a linen closet and a generator and a workbench for Flanders and a sewing table for Gravel.  This was the utility building.  And this structure was made of red brick.

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And, lastly, was the outhouse, a little standard outhouse for relieving oneself in the old-fashioned way before indoor plumbing had come to America.  This measured three feet by three feet by six feet.  And it had a roof of planks.   And it had walls of red brick.  Nothing more need be said about this building here in the yard with the sand dunes.

It had been raining today upon the sand dunes and upon the countryside fields and forests.  Flanders stood in the doorway of his living room and saw it come and go.  He saw the sun come back out now.  And, lo, a rainbow!  He saw it come.  It started on one end of the sky, and it began to ascend to the apex of the sky.  And it descended down to the ground on the other end of the sky.  And it shone in brightness of many color bands.  The top band of the rainbow was red.  The second band of the rainbow was orange.  The third band of the rainbow was yellow.  The fourth band of the rainbow was green.  The fifth band of the rainbow was blue.  The sixth band of the rainbow was indigo.  And the seventh band of the rainbow was violet.  These were the seven colored bands of every rainbow in the skies whenever they formed.  And this was what Flanders was seeing from just outside of his living room here in the front yard.  Flanders Nickels, a Bible student among Christians, well knew the wherefore to God’s creation of rainbows.  It is written in Genesis 9:13-16, “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud;  And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.  And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”  As God had promised Himself upon Noah’s worship at the altar upon leaving the ark in the post-flood Earth:  “…, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.  While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and

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summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”   Genesis 8:21-22. The rain let up.  The sun got lower in the sky.  And the rainbow gradually faded away from sight.  Happy and content, Flanders said to God, “I know all about rainbows in the Bible from reading Your story of Noah and Noah’s ark and the great flood in Genesis chapters seven and eight and nine.  But how can I find out more about them in these days?”  Of course.  The den.  He could go and do research on rainbows in the books of his den.

And he walked a small span in his countryside yard to his den and went in.  And he studied all about rainbows from many books on his shelves.  And he found out how rainbows come about:  The sun must be shining behind you; and the air in front of you keeps a lot of moisture (usually from raindrops); and the sun must be low in the sky (below forty-two degrees to be exact).  What makes the rainbow a band of colors?  Flanders found out how:  Sunlight passes through the water droplets in the air, causing the light to refract (bend) and to separate into its constituent colors as it enters and exits the droplets, and with the light reflecting off of the back of the droplets before exiting.  Put another way, rainbows form through three processes:  refraction and dispersion and reflection.  In refraction, when sunlight enters a water droplet, it bends due to the difference in density between air and water, causing the light to refract.  In dispersion, as the light bends, it separates into its component colors, because different waves of light bend at slightly different angles.  In reflection, inside the water droplets, the light reflects off of the back surface before exiting again.  Reading further, Flanders read that usually rainbows last less than one hour.  Rainbows disappear when the rain stops or when clouds come and block the sun.  This researcher also discovered that the reason why no one can walk to the end of a rainbow is because the rainbow is not a physical object with a specific location, but, rather, an optical illusion that depends on the viewer’s position relative to the sun and to the water droplets in the sky.  Further, Flanders found out that even if he and a friend were standing in the same place, they would each see a different rainbow.  And, yes, indeed, just as he was reading now, rainbows always move away from an observer as he moves around, thus making the rainbow impossible to reach.

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Thinking upon the rainbow that he had just seen, Flanders asked God impromptu, “Lord, what is ‘color?’”

And he thought to now look into his old ancient tome from 1896—a five volume Encyclopedic Dictionary given him by his big brother.  Big Brother had found this old set of books upon moving into a vacant building once the Ripon Hotel but was a hotel no longer.  He even found a newspaper picture of an American flag with forty-nine stars—indeed a most temporary number of stars for the flag for the United States.  Big Brother gave him the volumes.  The newspaper picture was still in Big Brother’s end room on the second story.  And Flanders looked up words in this five-book volume about “color.”

Right away Flanders came to some teaching about the electromagnetic spectrum, which he had learned about in high school science. This band of waves was based on both different wavelengths and different frequencies.  First were the radio waves.  Second there were the microwave waves.  Third there were the infrared waves.  In the middle were the visible light waves.  Third from last there were the ultraviolet waves.  Second from last there were the X-ray waves.  And last there were the gamma ray waves.  Flanders went on to look up the visible light waves of this broad spectrum.  And he read of the visible light spectrum.  And the spectrum of visible light had the same colors and the same order of colors as did the rainbows. The big book said that a student could remember these colors with these colors’ first letters spelling out consecutively the name “Roy G. Biv.”  “R” for “red.”  “O” for “orange.”

“Y” for “yellow.”  “G” for “green.”  “B” for “blue.”  “I” for “indigo.”  “V” for “violet.”

Thinking upon what he had learned in art class in grade school, Flanders said to God, “Yellow and red make orange.  Red and blue make purple.  Blue and yellow make green.”

Then he asked God, “But why is there color?  How can it come about?  What makes different colors?”  And he did further study into this old-time and voluminous encyclopedic dictionary.  And he read that color was created by the wavelengths of light that were reflected off of an object.  Those objects which reflected all colors in the proportion in which they existed in the spectrum were white.

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Those which reflected none were black.  Between those two limits there were infinite numbers of tints, according to the greater or less extent to which bodies reflected some colors and absorbed others.  On that theory, or hypothesis, bodies had no color in themselves, but those were produced by the kind of light which they reflected.  Looking up “color” in other books of his den, he read how the human eyes could tell colors:  First of all, light was the stimulus for color perception. Next, when light fell upon an object, some of it was absorbed and some of it was reflected.  Next, the eye’s light-sensitive cells, the rods and the cones, picked up the different wave lengths of light.  Finally, white objects did not absorb any light; black objects absorbed all light.

Next, Flanders took up his Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary of the American Language, whose copyright was 2014, not too many years ago.  And he began to look up basic colors and their definitions to see what the dictionary would say about them.  First of all he looked up the color “black.”

This was what he read,  “The achromatic color of least lightness characteristically perceived to belong to objects that neither reflect nor transmit light.”  He said to God, “Black:  the color of Hell, which is utter darkness and is outer darkness.”   Next he looked up “white,” and he read this:  “The color of new snow or milk” and also, “The achromatic object color of greatest lightness characteristically perceived to belong to objects that reflect diffusely nearly all incident energy throughout the visible spectrum.”  He said then, “White, God:  my spiritual standing before you is ‘white as snow, white as wool’ because of Your shed blood on the cross for me.”  Then he looked up “gray,” and did read, “Any of a series of neutral colors ranging between white and black.”  He said then, “Gray:  those griffins out there are all gray all over.”  Looking up “yellow,” he read, “A color whose hue resembles that of ripe lemons or sunflowers or is that of the portion of the spectrum lying between green and orange.”   He prayed, “Yellow, Lord:  I am the only one who likes dandelions before they go to seed.” Next he looked up “red” and did see its definition saying, “A color whose hue resembles that of blood or of the ruby or that is of the long-wave extreme of the visible spectrum.”  “Red,” he prayed,  “This was the color of

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Your perfect shed blood for me in Your sufferings on the old rugged cross.”  Going on to look up “blue,” he did read in definition, “A color whose hue is that of the clear sky or that of the portion of the color spectrum lying between green and violet.”  He prayed, “Blue:  the color of blueberries, once my favorite fruit.  And the blueberries I get up here in my fields are wild and little.”  Looking up the word “green,” he did read the words, “A color whose hue is somewhat less yellow than that of growing fresh grass or of the emerald or is that of the part of the spectrum lying between blue and yellow.”  He prayed thus:  “Green:  Wisconsin is green all over—both in our green grass of our fields and in our green leaves of our forests.”   He went on to see how “purple” was defined, and he read thus:  “Any of various colors that fall about midway between red and blue in hue.”  He then said to God, “Purple:  Back in old football days, the Minnesota Vikings were called ‘the purple people eaters.’”  Then he looked up “indigo,” and he read from Webster’s Dictionary, “A deep reddish-blue.”  He then said to God, “Indigo:  a girl with indigo hair would be a pretty girl.  And next he looked up “brown,” and this was what he read therefrom, “Any of a group of colors between red and yellow in hue, of medium to low lightness, and of moderate to low saturation.”  With a jolly laugh, Flanders said to God, “Brown: Why, a definition like that hardly gives my Gravel’s brown eyes due praise, O Lord.”  Then, lastly, he looked up the word “orange.”  And this was how the word book told of it:  “Any of a group of colors that are between red and yellow in hue.”  With another laugh, Flanders said, “Orange:  Would that they had defined ‘orange’ as ‘the color of fresh oranges,’ instead.”  Then he put the dictionary away.

He then looked around his den in here.  He saw many colors of many book covers—paperback bindings and cloth bindings and hardcover bindings.  And he began to think about things of many colors out there.  He thought about paints and all of their different colors—whether house paint or artist’s paint.  He remembered how he had used to look at those big paint books full of ring binder bound pages of hues and tones and tints and shades of the colors known to man. He thought upon colored pencils and colored magic markers and colored sidewalk chalk and colored blackboard chalk

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and colored crayons.  He thought about the colors of cheerleader uniforms in the cheerleader fashion supply catalogs that he and Gravel looked at together from time to time.  He remembered those three main cheerleader uniform catalog companies—“Varsity, Incorporated” and “Cheerleader Supply Company,” and “Cheerzone/Cheer Fantastic.”  He remembered the colors that were in the most recent fashion catalog of Cheerzone/Cheer Fantastic Company:  These cheerleader uniforms came in black and white; and in dark green and white; and in Kelly green and white; and in maroon and white; and in navy and white; and in purple and white; and in red and white; and in royal and white; and in orange and white.  In their earlier days together, white was not the only complementary color in traditional cheerleader uniforms as they were here in these later days together.  Classic black and yellow matched Lisa “Gravel” Nickels most attractively.  Gravel’s cheerleader uniform was not only from God Himself, but also was from a more fairy tale time of cheerleader apparel when pleats ruled the skirts and when sweaters were sweaters.

He then looked up around this den of his and saw his big box of 64-count Crayola crayons on his little table in here.  He came up to it.  And he picked it up.  And he took one out—it was a black crayon.  And he measured it with his ruler.  It measured three-and-five-eighths inches in length and five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter.  He then set it back in his sixty-four count box.  His heart full of the spirit of colors, Flanders went to his Bible-study desk and sat down, and he went ahead to pull out each crayon, read its color on the label, and set it down upon his desk’s raised top against the raised ledge.  He read the following sixty-four colors: black, blue, brown, green, orange, red, violet (purple), yellow, carnation pink, blue-green, blue-violet, red-orange, red-violet, white, yellow-green, yellow-orange, apricot, bluetiful, cerulean, gray, green-yellow, indigo, scarlet, violet-red, cadet blue, chestnut, melon, peach, sky blue, tan, timberwolf, wisteria, burnt sienna, cornflower, goldenrod, granny smith apple, lavender, macaroni and cheese, mahogany, mauvelous, olive green, purple mountains’ majesty, raw sienna, salmon, sea green, sepia, spring green, tumbleweed, asparagus, bittersweet, brick red,

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burnt orange, forest green, gold, magenta, periwinkle, orchid, Pacific blue, plum, Robin’s egg blue, silver, tickle me pink, turquoise blue, and wild strawberry.

Looking upon his pile of crayons one crayon high across his raised desktop and resting upon the desk stop, Flanders said to God in leisurely chat, “I like ‘yellow’ and ‘black’ because my cheerleader wife is dressed always in her cheerleader yellow and black.  I think that I like silver and gold next best to them as my favorites in here.  And let’s not forget about gray, or grey as it might be spelled.  There is a little bit of gray on Gravel’s cheerleader sweater.        Then he gathered up these sixty-four crayons and put them back into his crayon box and put them back on his little table.

And he went on to study all about Crayola Crayons.  This is how they make their crayons:  They are made from heated wax and pigments.  This is poured into molds.  They harden as they cool down.  Then they are pushed out of their molds.  A machine wraps a label around each one.  And a collator machine sorts them by color and puts them into boxes.  Hence the crayon.  And Crayola crayons are sold in boxes of twelve, boxes of twenty-four, boxes of sixty-four, and boxes of one hundred twenty.  There were also boxes of sixteen and boxes of eight.  There are Crayola Crayon factories in Easton, Pennsylvania, and in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and in Mexico City, Mexico.

These crayons were invented by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith in 1902.  And it was Edwin Binney’s wife, Alice, who came up with the name “Crayola” for the brand name for these crayons.  She took two French words, “craie,” which translates to “chalk” in English, and “oleaginous,” (shortened “ola,”), which translates to “oily” in English, and she came up with the name brand “Crayola.” for the world famous crayons.  These crayons were first made of paraffin wax and nontoxic pigments.  The first such crayons of Binney and Smith, in the year 1903, were sold in a box of eight, and they sold for five cents total.

The most popular color for Crayola crayons is blue.  And the rarest color for Crayola crayons was “torch red.”  Torch red was later called “scarlet.”  “Dandelion” was another rare color for Crayola

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crayons.

Now Flanders felt like coloring in his coloring book.  He went to his table in the den, and he took up his grown-up coloring book of these times and found a most intricate skyscraper ready to be colored in with his sixty-four crayons.  And he went about to fill in each window of this skyscraper with a different color most meticulously.  He made sure to not color outside the lines.  And he took his time.  And he got all of the windows filled in.  And his hand was tired.  And more of this skyscraper remained.  But he wanted to think about Gravel now.

And he picked out his black crayon and his yellow crayon and his gray crayon, and his peach crayon and his brown crayon.  And he took a black piece of white paper, eight-and-one-half inches by eleven inches, and he commenced his first drawing of fair Lisa Nickels, his beloved cheerleader dressed as she always was.  This took the rest of the evening.  And when he was done, he ran out of the den, called forth, “Gravel!” and ran out onto the sand dunes.

A voice called back, “What is it, Flanders?”

And he said, “It is I,”

And she teased him back,  “And I am I, Flanders.”

She was in the doorway of their prayer room.  He said, “I’ve got a present for you, girl,”

“But it is not my birthday.  It is not Christmas.  It is not our anniversary,” she said, eager to see this mysterious present.

And he said, “It is present for you just for today being today, Lisa.”

“What is this unofficial present, Flanders?” she asked.

“It is this,” he said, holding out his color drawing of her.  It was dark outside here in the sand dunes.   “Let’s go inside and see it under the light,” he said.

And they went into their bedroom, turned on the lights, and she and he looked at the crayon sketch.  “Not bad, Husband,” she said.  “I like it.”

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“What do you think, Lisa?” he asked.

“I love it.  Do I get to keep it?” she asked.

“I give it to you,” he said.

“Alas, if only I could sketch drawings with crayons,” she said.  “I know only how to write short stories with pencils.”

“You write great, Wife,” he said.

“And you draw great,” she said.  And she gently hugged this crayon drawing against her cheerleader sweater in both arms.  “I’ve been wondering where you were all evening.” she said to him sweetly.

“I was in the den,” he said.

“I’ve missed you,” she said.

“I’ve been thinking of you,” he said.

She then took this drawing of her cheerleader self, and she went and set it upon her beloved treasure chest in her closet.  Her fetching visage told him a silent, “Thank you, Flanders.”

“You have never put anything on your cheerleader uniform treasure chest before, Gravel,” he said.  “What a special place to put something like this, my wife!”

“That is officially for me for now on ‘My present of presents,’”  declared the cheerleader.  And she said now with her voice, “Thank you, Husband.”  She then took a roll of clear tape and taped it upon the lid of the treasure chest for forever.

“What honor to a man who tried to draw with crayons!” he said to her.

And she promised, “I will write a short story about this, O Flanders.”

And with this, they proceeded to join in a spontaneous prayer meeting, turning off the bedroom lights, kneeling upon this room’s braided elliptic rug, and chatting with God Up Above—Flanders first; Gravel second.

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CHAPTER III

The cheerleader-for-Christ among her family of four were gathered together for fellowship and fun times in their orchard.  Flanders had a Granny Smith apple in his hand.  Gravel had a Honey Crisp apple in her hand.  His WhiteHouse had a Red Delicious apple on the ground at her fore hooves and was leaning down and biting into it.  And her CasaBlanca was eating a Golden Delicious apple the same way as WhiteHouse was.

“How’s your apple, WhiteHouse?” asked Flanders.

“Not so good, Master,” she said.

“How come, girl?” he asked.

“I am beginning to think that Red Delicious apples are not as they are named—that is ‘delicious,’” she said.

“And I don’t anymore think that Golden Delicious apples are really delicious apples at that, either,” said CasaBlanca.

“Try mine,” said Gravel, holding out her partly eaten Honey Crisp apple toward her fond pet.

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CasaBlanca bit off a piece of her proffered apple from her mistress, and she said, “Ah, Honey Crisp—the Midwest’s best apple.”

“What about me?” asked WhiteHouse.  “Don’t I get a bite, too, Gravel?”

“You can have a bite, too, O WhiteHouse,” agreed Gravel, and the unicorn took a bite out of the apple proffered in the cheerleader’s hand.

“The biggest and the best and the sweetest of Wisconsin’s apples, O Gravel,” said WhiteHouse.

“And the juiciest, too,” said CasaBlanca.

“Thank you for the bit from your apple, Lisa,” said WhiteHouse.

“And thank you from me, too, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Could I have just one little taste of your apple, too, good wife?” asked Flanders.

She put the apple in her mouth and leaned her face toward his face as they did all the time when they kissed.  But this time it would be a shared apple instead of a kiss.  And Flanders took a bite out of her apple thus.  “Thanks, girl,” he said.  And they drew back.

“Our keepers are at it again, CasaBlanca,” said WhiteHouse.

“Being husband and wife, they do things different from we unicorns,” said CasaBlanca.

“Romance,” said WhiteHouse.

“Nonsense to us unicorns,” said CasaBlanca.

“Girl, if you want another bite of my apple, talk nice,” said Gravel with a grin of favor toward CasaBlanca.

Flanders said, “It looks like there is no more apple left there, Gravel.”

“There is one more bite left,” she said.

“Which of us three get to have the last bite?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Is it I?’ asked Casablanca.

“Maybe your favorite guy, Lisa,” said Flanders.

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In ostentation the cheerleader in black and yellow held up this Honey Crisp apple for all to see, and she brought it to her mouth and ate the last bite.  “Ha ha ha to you guys,” she said.

“Well I’ve still got my Granny Smith apple, and I am not sharing this,” said Flanders.

“Who wants that, Master?” asked WhiteHouse.  “It’s sour.”

“More like tart,” said CasaBlanca.

“Not my favorite,” said Gravel.

“But my favorite,” said Flanders.

“Go and finish your apple, CasaBlanca,” said Gravel.

“And you, yours, girl,” said Flanders to WhiteHouse.

In jest, CasaBlanca went and said, “I cannot bear rind, Mistress.”

“CasaBlanca, that was already said by Pinocchio in that famous book,” said Gravel.

“And, Master, as for myself, I cannot bear core,” said WhiteHouse.

“I do not believe that Pinocchio said that about core,” said Flanders.

“He didn’t,” said WhiteHouse.  “I said it.”

“As for me, I do not like stems much,” said Lisa.

“Nor that little rough part at the bottoms of the apples, as for myself,” said Flanders.

“Why are we all eating apples then here in our orchard if we do not like this part and do not like that part?” asked CasaBlanca a rhetorical question.

And in succinct quip, WhiteHouse said, “Because we all like the apple part of our apples.”

“Very well put, girl,” said Flanders.  And he took his last bite of his Granny Smith apple, and he said, “At least I did not have to share my apple, gals.”

Then they wandered around this orchard so full of trees of green apples and trees of red apples and trees of apples that were both green and red.

Then Lisa asked, “CasaBlanca, would you do one of your tricks for me again now?”

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“I’ve got lots of tricks that I do for you, Mistress,” said the she-unicorn.  “Which one would you like for me to do now?”

The cheerleader thought for a moment, then said, “How about one of your apple orchard tricks, girl?”

“Maybe my favorite orchard trick,” said CasaBlanca.

“Yeah!  That one, girl,” cheered Gravel.

“Stand back, everyone,” said Flanders, knowing this trick.  And they stood back away from the tree and from CasaBlanca.

As part of this official unicorn trick, CasaBlanca said about a McIntosh apple tree which stood before him, “Mistress, would you like me to pick you an apple?”

And, playing their game, the mistress said, “Yes.  Would you get me an apple from this tree, O CasaBlanca?”

“I am your unicorn ever at your service, my mistress,” said CasaBlanca most formally in this game.  And she went and performed her trick.  She backed up a few paces from this McIntosh apple tree, then charged toward it in gallop, then pounced upon it, throwing both of her fore hooves hard against the tree’s trunk.  This shook the tree of apples.  And a dozen apples fell from the tree’s branches and down upon the grass below.  To finish this unicorn trick, CasaBlanca pierced her horn into an apple upon the ground, lifted it up upon her horn, brought it to her mistress, and lowered her horn before her mistress.

Taking this apple off of the horn, Gravel said, “Thank you, good and faithful CasaBlanca.  This one will do for me just right.”  And the mistress bit into it and said, “Mm.  Mm.”  She was pleased.

“You’re most welcome, O Mistress,” said her she-unicorn.

Flanders and his WhiteHouse then looked at each other.  “Your turn, girl,” her master said to her in encouragement.

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“Master and all of you gals here,” said WhiteHouse, “you three all know how I know more tricks for our grove than I do for our orchard.  But I am thinking now about a brand new trick never done by either of us unicorns here in this orchard.”

“What is it?” asked Gravel.

“You have to wait to find out, Lisa,” said Flanders’s she-unicorn in sweet tease.

“Tell your master if you will not tell her, girl,” said Flanders, hoping to know ahead of time what this new trick was going to be.

Yet his unicorn went on to say again, this time to her master, “You have to wait to find out.”

“It’s going to be a doozy,” said CasaBlanca in anticipation and mystery.  “That’s for sure.”

“It will ‘bring down the house.’  I hope,” said Gravel.

“Let’s just say that it will bring down the apples, good Lisa,” said WhiteHouse.

“Many apples, girl?” asked Flanders.

“Very many apples, my master,” said his she-unicorn.

“Just leave some for us in this orchard,” said CasaBlanca, “after you perform your unicorn trick, that is.”  The two she-unicorns smiled in mirth upon each other.

And WhiteHouse said, “We have plenty of apple trees in our orchard to spare.”

And Flanders’s pet unicorn began to prepare her most novel unicorn trick for her family of four here with her.  And she stopped before a tree of apples that were both green and red.  She saw that it had a lowest branch within leaping height for a unicorn.  She paused to look up at this branch. It had many apples all ready for the picking.  Yes.  This branch would do for her trick.

CasaBlanca spoke up and said, “I never noticed this tree before.”

Gravel said, “I wonder what kinds of apples this one has.”

And Flanders said, “These apples are called ‘Zestor apples.’”

“They look good.  I would like to have one, if I could,” said the cheerleader.

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“Good Gravel, you shall have it,” promised the tricky she-unicorn.  “Very soon, all of us will have more than enough for a whole week.”

And she went ahead to do her unicorn trick with this tree of Zestor apples.  She leaped unicorn-horn-first up toward the part of this horizontal branch of apples that joined the vertical trunk of the tree.

And in the air, she thrust her horn into and through this branch right there where she was aiming.  Her unicorn horn went all the way through this branch, and did cleave this branch right off of the tree, and did send this branch falling down to the ground in its entirety.  And she came back down to earth hooves first, and stood sure and steady, sticking her landing like a gymnast.

“Why, now we have a whole branch to eat off of,” said Gravel.

“I would say more like a whole week to eat from it,” said CasaBlanca.

“That’s what I had said,” said WhiteHouse.

“Yes.  That is what WhiteHouse had said,” said Flanders.

“Did I do good, Master?” asked his she-unicorn pet.

And Flanders said, “You are good at games and yet even better at battle, good girl.”

“Why, thank you, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“We griffin-slayers serve a mighty God,” said Flanders.

“We are four against six,” said Gravel.  “But with God on our side, we are on the winning side.”

“Someday the Lord will come and put down all griffins in this world,” said CasaBlanca.

“In the meanwhile, we train for battle and prepare for battle stations for the next time those griffins attack,” said WhiteHouse.

“We griffin-slayers serve a wise God,” said Flanders.

Then the four Christian warriors in this time of leisure here in the orchard began to pick off apples from this apple tree branch that WhiteHouse so grandiloquently took down for them.

They then sat down in the tall field grass between the apple trees of this orchard and began to

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eat these green and red apples.  In her private thoughts Lisa Nickels again reflected to herself upon those six griffins and the lost state of her immediate and extended family that were under the power of these griffin demons.  She always kept saying to her loved ones, “You need Christ.”  But their griffins kept saying to them, “You do not need Christ.”  And why did they believe the griffins and not herself the Christian?   Because they were lost in their sins.  Believers in Christ like herself went right to Heaven after dying.  And all unbelievers of Christ, like her family, went right to Hell after dying.

Flanders spoke and said, “I know what’s making you sad right now, Lisa.”

And she said, “You know your wife very well, my husband.”  Then she said, “I’ve been thinking about things again.”  Then she said, “Flanders, do you know Hebrews 3:18-19?”

“I do, O Gravel,” he said.  And he recited this pair of Bible verses that were on her mind:  “And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”

“The griffins say to my loved ones everything that Satan tells them to say to them,” said Gravel in solemn rumination.  And she narrated these things said by the griffins:  “You don’t have to get born again to get to Heaven,” “You can get saved later,”  “Take it easy now, and wait till after the rapture,” “Wait till you are on your deathbed, and then get around to getting saved,” “There are many ways to Heaven,” “Just make sure that your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds,” “Do the best you can,” “Keep the ten commandments,” “Get baptized,” “Join a church,” “Just be sincere,” “A loving God will never send anyone to Hell,” even, “Never mind,  You will just be six feet under.”

CasaBlanca said, “Mistress, I heard that all the false religions in the world say that salvation is based on works by some kind or another.”

“And we all four know that true Christianity is the only true religion, because it teaches salvation by grace through faith alone,” said WhiteHouse.

“It is written,” recited Flanders Nickels, “’Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned

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of grace, but of debt.  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.’  Romans 4:4-5.”

“Also is it written in Romans 11:6,” began Lisa Nickels:  “And if by grace, then it is nor more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.  But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work.”

“Those griffins love to talk religion, Mistress, but you will never hear them talk about Jesus Christ,” said CasaBlanca.

“And they dare not even hint at the Gospel,” said WhiteHouse.

“The good news of the Gospel,” said Flanders.  “The good news that Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead on the third day.”

“Amen, good Flanders!” said Gravel,  “The Gospel of salvation.  The saving Gospel.”

“Christ’s free gift of eternal life in Heaven, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“His free gift of everlasting life,” said WhiteHouse.

“Only for those who accept the Gospel into their heart,” said Lisa.

“’Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.’  II Corinthians 9:15,” said Flanders Nickels.

“God sacrificed His only begotten Son for us on Calvary’s cross,” said Gravel in reverence.

“And mankind rejects this blessed Saviour,” said Flanders.

“That makes them to be as bad as the griffins, Master,” said WhiteHouse.  “The unsaved among mankind, that is.”

“The unsaved, the lost, the unregenerate, the unbeliever, the child of the kingdom of darkness, the unrighteous,” began CasaBlanca.  “All of these are words for those who reject Christ.”

“I prefer to call them what they are with all due frankness,” said Flanders.  “They are ‘the wicked.’”

“I agree,” said Gravel, “even if I am talking about my loved ones.”  She went on to say, “Pastor

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is so right when he preaches, ‘No person who is not a born-again Christian can be said to be a ‘good person.’”

“That makes me think about what God says with no undue discretion in the book of Romans about the heart of the wicked for what it is,” said Flanders Nickels.

“What does God say about what the wicked are like, Master?” asked his she-unicorn pet.

He took out his little red pocket New Testament from his shirt pocket, searched these Scriptures, and found them.  He said, “Here it all is, girls,  It’s in Romans 3:10-18.”

“Oh, Master.  May I get to read it out loud for us?” asked WhiteHouse.

“I’d be glad to hear you read it for us, girl,” said Flanders.  And he held up this little Bible before her eyes.

And she read out loud this following powerful passage of the heart of all the wicked:  “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:  Their feet are swift to shed blood:  Destruction and misery are in their ways:  And the way of peace have they not known:  There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

“That sounds just like griffins,” said CasaBlanca.

“But they are people,” said Flanders.  “Wicked people going to the same Devils’ Hell as the wicked griffins are.”

“I kind of see that in my family,” said Lisa Nickels, “even though I love them all dearly.”

“Except for the grace of God, all of that would still describe us,” said Flanders.

“It is good to be a born-again believer, Flanders,” said Gravel.

“Sin,” said Flanders.  “We all sin—believer and unbeliever alike,”

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“The believer has asked God to forgive his sins, and he no longer has to pay for his sins by going to Hell,” began Lisa.  “The unbeliever has not asked God to forgive his sins, and he still has to pay for his sins by going to Hell.”

In humbleness as a saved sinner, Flanders pondered out loud, “I sometimes wonder if I have more in common with an unsaved man than I do with God, because the unsaved man and I still have sin and the sin nature in our lives, and God never sinned.”

“Great and grand repentance does the Holy Spirit bring within the heart of a person the moment that person gets born again,” said Gravel.  “But I, a sinner, do think myself about what you just said from time to time in my walk with Christ.”

“It is a most humble thought,” said Flanders.

“We Christians need to keep short tabs with our Heavenly Father and ask for His forgiveness when we do stumble over temptations, so that our fellowship with God does not get broken,” said Gravel.

“A believer’s sin can harm his fellowship with his Heavenly Father, but it cannot harm his relationship with his Heavenly Father,” said Flanders.

“No matter what a child of God does, he or she is still always a son of God or daughter of God,” said Gravel.  “Once saved, always saved,”

“The precious promise from God of the eternal security of the believer,” said Flanders.

“Pastor says that there are two types of people on the Earth—the saved and the lost,” said Gravel.  “And some Bible commentaries go further and say that there are three types of people on the Earth—the Christian living for God, the Christian not living for God, and the unsaved person.”

“I read that in devotionals,” said Flanders.  “Put another way, the three types of people in the world are the spiritual believers and the carnal believers and the natural man.”

“’But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:  for they are foolishness

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unto him:  neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’  I Corinthians 2:14, Flanders,” recited Gravel a Bible verse about the lost.

Flanders went on to say, “I memorized a whole bunch of Bible verses that summarize the mindset of the wicked that tell quite why they think this way about our Jesus.”

“Do you mean verses that tell us why the wicked are wicked?” asked Gravel.

“Uh huh,” said Flanders with a nod.

“Let’s hear them, if we could, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“Let’s go and hear them all,” said CasaBlanca.

“I doubt that I know all of the verses that speak on that subject,” said Flanders.

“As many as you have memorized then, Husband,” said Lisa Nickels.

And he began:  “In Psalm 10:4 God says, ‘The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God:  God is not in all his thoughts.’”

WhiteHouse made a comment, “Proud people do not go around thinking about God any.  They live as if He does not exist.”

Flanders continued, “In Psalm 10:6, God’s Word says, ‘He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved:  for I shall never be in adversity.’”

CasaBlanca spoke and said, “It looks like the wicked think that nothing bad is going to happen to them.  Things go smoothly for the wicked for a long time.  But the day of reckoning will fall upon them someday from the hand of God, and they don’t even know it.”

Flanders continued, “In Psalm 10:11, it says, ‘He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten:  he hideth his face; he will never see it.’”

“Huh!  God never forgets,” said Gravel.  “Nor does He hide.  Nor does He not see.”  She then said, “God remembers all from eternity past to eternity future.  And He does not hide—one can see Him in one’s conscience and in the wonders of nature and in the Scriptures.  These signs of God are

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irrefutable proof that He is.  As for never seeing the wicked and his ways, God is omnipresent—He is all-present.  There is no place in the creation where God is not.”

“Well said, O Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

Flanders continued, “In Psalm 10:13, God writes, ‘Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God?  He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.’”

Gravel spoke again in good preaching amid this fellowship in Christ, “Huh!  The wicked think that they can get away with it!  It’s bad enough that they think that God will not judge them someday for all of their evil deeds, but then for them to hold God in contempt because of this.  Woe unto them when they stand before Jesus at the Great White Throne judgment!”

“Amen, good Gravel,” said WhiteHouse.

Flanders continued, “In Psalm 36:1, the Word of God tells us, ‘The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.’”

“What thinking person would not be afraid of God Almighty?” asked CasaBlanca.  “The griffins believe and tremble.  We unicorns believe and serve Him.  You two keepers of us pets, though God’s children, still have a respectful and appropriate fear of Him.  God is Lord!  Only the wicked among humankind do not seem to fear God.  And such as these have the most to fear for the Hell that awaits them.”

WhiteHouse said, “Their own lack of fear of God makes them to act wickedly.”

And Gravel said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Flanders continued his preaching, saying to them, “And in Psalm 73:11, the Psalmist says, ‘And they say, How doth God know?  And is there knowledge in the most High?’”

CasaBlanca said, “Is not the most High in the highest part of creation?  Does this Highest not see all that lies below Him from Up There?  Is not everything in His knowledge as the utmost High?”

WhiteHouse said to this, “The wicked act wickedly, because they think that any One to Whom

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they might be accountable in this life down here does not know what they think to get away with in life on this side of eternity.”

Flanders resumed his Bible verse quotes:  “In Psalm 94:7, it is indeed written, ‘Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.’”

“The God of Jacob is also the God of his chosen nation Israel,” said Gravel.  “And the God of His chosen nation Israel is also the God of this whole Earth.  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living Lord.  God sees all, knows all, judges all.”

“The wicked are most foolish people who go on in their sinful ways, because they think that God does not care what they do,” said WhiteHouse.

And CasaBlanca said, “Nothing gets past God’s eyes.”

Lastly, Flanders Nickels went on to say, “And finally is it written in Job 21:14-15, ‘Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.  What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?  And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?’”  Then he said, “What do you gals think about that?”

And Gravel said, “The wicked actually think that they have nothing to gain for themselves if they have Jesus in their lives.”

And WhiteHouse said, “They actually say to God, ‘Go away!’”

CasaBlanca said, “And they say to our Lord, ‘We don’t want to know what You know.’”

Flanders said, “They see no advantage to themselves were they to serve the Good Lord.  And they think not to benefit to Him by praying, themselves asking, ‘Why should I have to pray?’”

“Master, the wicked are most abominable,” said WhiteHouse.

“They are reprobates with no good within them,” said Gravel.

“They are wretched in the darkness of their hearts,” said CasaBlanca.

“They are like the griffins,” summed up Flanders.

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Inside her thoughts, Lisa “Gravel” Nickels condemned her wicked family members for their continuous rejection of Jesus despite her prayers and her witnessing and her tears.  She was thinking now about those utterances that she personally referred to as “chants.”  Each member of her immediate family had said his or her own unique chant.  These chants, as Lisa regarded them, were most telltale about what her loved ones truly felt in their wicked ideologies.  They were spoken to Gravel when she had her occasions to witness to them.  And they were scathing indictments of their wicked hearts that clung to their sins.  They were rebuttals, disclaimers, damning rebukes.  They were cants, excuses, telltale quips.  They were indicators of their lost souls, signs of their lost thinking, words of their lost deeds. And her loved ones, were they to die in their sins, would be haunted by these chants that they had yelled out for forever in the fires of Hell.  Mom said her chants.  Dad said his chants.  Big Sister said her chant.  Big Brother said his chant.  Little Brother said his chant.  And Niece said her chant.

Mom’s chants said the following:  “Pastor Northern never said that,” and “I didn’t read the footnotes.” and “Whoever says money can’t buy happiness isn’t shopping at the right place,” and, “I think that you are addicted to God, Gravel.”

Dad’s chants said the following, “It’s all right to believe what you want to believe; just so you don’t force it on others,” and “That’s one man’s opinion,” and “What makes you think that you are smarter than me?”

Big Sister’s chant was, “I’ll be all right, Hon,’”

Big Brother’s chant was, “I’m not done yet.”

Little Brother’s chant was, “I believe in my girlfriend.”

And Niece’s chant was, “Nameless was his name.”

These mysterious dialogues of rejections of the Saviour will be expounded upon in full in a later part of this book.  Each such chant was uttered only one time by that chant’s speaker.

In the middle of her thoughts here in the apple orchard, Lisa Nickels heard WhiteHouse speak

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and say, “Master, the other day I saw a griffin fall down from the sky to the ground.  It was dead.”

“You did, girl?” asked Flanders.

“I did indeed, O Master,” said his she-unicorn.

And Flanders said, “It is written, ‘I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven,’  Luke 10:18.”

“Amen!” said Flanders and WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca.

“Amen,” said Gravel.

There was still hope for the answer to her prayers for her life dream “the Dream of Dreams.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER IV

The four were on Highway 141 on their way to Sunday Morning Worship.  Flanders and Gravel were in his classic Roadster Replicar, and WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca were in the open flatbed trailer behind it.  Flanders was driving; and Lisa was in the passenger seat.  There was no back seat.  And the top was down.  This road, being a state highway, was not a gravel road like roads in the outskirts of town where they lived.  Instead it was made of nice smooth blacktop.

“We’re cruising, Husband,” said Gravel, dressed again in her black and yellow cheerleader uniform.

“So are we, back here, Mistress,” called forth CasaBlanca.

“Is everything all right back there?” asked Flanders.

“Everything is A-Okay, Master,” replied WhiteHouse.

Gravel spoke and said, “I remember a funny Peanuts cartoon I saw one time long ago.  Linus was talking about something that his mother said while the family was on a trip in a car.  She went and said, ‘What if everything was going all right, and suddenly something went wrong with the glove

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compartment?’”

“Ha ha ha!” said Flanders.

In suit, WhiteHouse went and said, “What if we were going along here just fine on our ride to church, and suddenly something went wrong with the trailer hitch?”

“Ha ha ha!” said the other three.

CasaBlanca said, “Mistress, three of us laughed at WhiteHouse’s joke, and only one of us laughed at your joke.”

In rebuttal, Gravel said, “It goes to say that Flanders’s unicorn is three times as funny as I am.”  She laughed out loud at her joke.

“Or one could say that you are only one-third as funny as is WhiteHouse,” said Flanders Nickels.

There was a general consensus of smiles among the four at this tease from Flanders.

And CasaBlanca said, “Nobody laughed at your joke, Flanders.”

And Lisa Nickels said, “At least I laughed at my own joke, Husband.  You did not even do that with your little joke.”

“Do not distract the driver,” said Flanders with a little grin.  “A driver in a car has to be more careful other traffic when it is animals than he does when it is vehicles.”

“This road, being a highway, even the animals go faster than they do on country trunks,” said Gravel.

“Animals and cars,” said CasaBlanca.

“That’s because Highway 141 has a higher speed limit than do the other roads in this part of Wisconsin,” said WhiteHouse.

“If you think that the speed limit is high on Highway 141, you should see how fast they go on Highway 41,” said Lisa Nickels.

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“How about on Highway I-43?” asked Flanders.  “The interstate highway.”

“Yes!” said all three others in agreement. “Really fast.”

“We are there, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“Here we turn,” said CasaBlanca.

This church was Marinette County Baptist Church, south of Beaver, and it lay between the towns of Pound and Coleman.  The biggest town in this part of the state was Crivitz, north of here just a few miles, and north of Beaver even fewer miles.  The church had a sign here where they turned off of the state highway to the left, and the church had a sign right in front of the building at the end of this driveway.  This church sign on the highway was a large and handcrafted sign most noticeable to passersby.  It was made of wooden beams and iron chains, and it lay above the driveway across its entire width.  It was parallel to the highway, so that one could see it from the side.  It had two round beams like unto little telephone poles on each side of the driveway here at its entrance, whose tops reached up to ten feet high.  Across the tops of these round wooden poles and fastened tightly was a logging chain from pole to pole, its midpoint dangling one foot below its vertices.  And, suspended from this center of this main chain was a wooden sign dangling from five lesser chains.  This sign read “Welcome to Marinette County Baptist Church.”  This sign was of cherry wood with inlays of apple wood.  It measured five feet wide by one foot high by one-and-one-half inches deep.  And its letters were of ornate script.  As for the church driveway, it was a rustic and homey two-rutted road that led straight to the church one-tenth of a mile away from the highway.  Its right side of the road was filled with pine trees full of green needles and brown pine cones, all in a single file.  Its left side of the road was filled with oak trees full of leaves and acorns, all also in a single file.  Beyond the pine trees was a field full of white-tailed deer.  Beyond the oak trees was a field full of wild turkeys.  And ponds of otters were sprinkled about both fields.  Where this two-rutted road ended up was the good independent Baptist church.  First came the parking lot.  Then came the sign.  Then came the church building.  The

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parking lot was all sand.  The church had a business meeting not too long ago, and they voted to cover the mowed grass of the worn-down parking lot with new sand from the quarry for needful maintenance grounds purposes.  As for the church sign here in front, it was also a work of a craftsman in wood.  It stood upon two sawhorses three feet above the ground, and it was to the immediate left of the church doors.  This sign measured five feet wide by three feet tall by two-and-one-half inches deep.  And it rested upon two slots cut out of the center of the main boards of two sawhorses holding it up at perpendicular angles.  Conversely to the road sign, this church sign was made of apple wood with cherry wood inlays.  Its letters were all cursive letters.  And they read the following:

“Marinette County Baptist Church

Sunday School for all ages:  7:00 A.M.

Sunday Morning Worship:  9:00 A.M.

Sunday Evening Worship:  6:00 P.M.

Wednesday Night Bible Study and Prayer Meeting:  6:00 P.M.

Thursday Evening Visitation:  6:00 P.M.

Pastor:  Repartée Preamble.

Deacon:  Doxology Benediction.

‘It is written, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,…”

–Hebrews 10:25a’”

 

And to the right of the church doors was a little treasure chest of iron hinges about one foot wide by one foot high by one foot deep resting upon a little park-type bench in a landscaping of mulch and sawdust.  In this little chest was the official church title deed, and the pastor’s official ordination and the church’s official recognition and the church’s church constitution and church covenant.  These were locked up and kept safe by God.  Only Pastor and his deacon had the keys to this treasure chest.  And all of the flock regarded these papers as holy and sacred.  They looked, but did not touch.

Then came the Baptist church building here.  Its layout was that verily like unto the cross.  Its interior was unto the shape of the cross of Calvary.  The auditorium formed the lower part of the long shaft.  The choir and the pulpit and the orchestra pit formed the entire crossbeam shaft.  And the two offices of the main two church leaders formed the top part of the long shaft.  The auditorium was very

 

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long and quite narrow.  It had windows on both walls that reached from just above the baseboards of the much woodwork to all the way to the bare rafters above about ten feet high.  Like the auditorium, each of these windows were long and narrow, each one measuring two feet wide by nine feet high.  And they opened up most comfortingly in hot Wisconsin July days to let in the air into the church.  The flock could not afford air conditioning.  But they did purchase many box fans.  For the winters in this church, they had wooden louvers with slots and hinges to shut up over the windows inside to keep the heat inside.  There was a furnace building out behind the church that gave heat to this church in the cold winters of this north country.  By God’s providence, in a business meeting, they had voted for this furnace and its installation in this church’s earliest days before their first winter came upon them as a flock of God.  The seating of this long and narrow auditorium of this little Baptist church was simple wooden rocking chairs with no cushions.  There were twenty-five rows and four columns of such seats in this auditorium.  That was for a congregation of one hundred.  As yet this little church had not ever numbered one hundred, but someday they might.  They left that in God’s hands.  Along the left wall was a long single shelf of church hymnbooks for the services.  Along the right wall was a long single shelf of King James Version Bibles for the services.  And along the back of this auditorium was a simple folding table full of tracts and booklets and missionary letters for any to pick up free for themselves—regulars and visitors.  This was the auditorium, the bottom part of the cross lay-out.

As for the transverse bar of this cross in here, in the center was the pulpit, in the center of this cross of the church.  Himself, being a humble man of God, Pastor preferred a basic and simple and

inexpensive pulpit for himself.  And Deacon Benediction, though he wanted the best for his pastor, was coerced into not making the best pulpit that he could for him.  Pastor said that he would pay for it with his missionary church planting funds, and that was scarce.  And Pastor’s pulpit was a bare pine wood board resting upon cement blocks.  And it stood to just to Pastor’s waist, three feet above the floor.

Upon this flat wide and broad pulpit top was Pastor’s King James Bible and his church hymnbook and

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his sermon notes and his list of the announcements and his pencils and the offering plate and the recent missionary letters of those missionaries whom the church had voted in a business meeting to help support financially and the official church invitation booklet and the official church salvation tract.

As for the right leg of this transverse bar of the cross of the church, that is, to Pastor’s left where he stood, was the church’s orchestra pit of five—there was a bagpipe player and a recorder player and a triangle player and a cymbal player and a bell player.  As to the left leg of this transverse bar of the cross of the church, that is, to Pastor’s right where he stood, was the church’s choir of eight—there was a boy soprano and a girl soprano and a girl alto and a woman alto and a man tenor and a woman tenor and a middle-aged man basso and an older man basso.  The orchestra pit sat on benches for one in a sunken pit beneath the floor.  The choir stood on elevated wooden platforms for one upon a raised stage.  A door to the far side of the orchestra opened out onto the side yard where the creek flowed by full of blue gills.  A door to the far side of the choir opened out onto the other side yard where a pond lay, full of ducks.  As for the part of the cross that was the far end of the long bar—that is, that span of church interior behind the pulpit and beyond the transverse bar, here were the two offices of the two church leaders.  First came a short hallway.  Then came the deacon’s office.  Then came another short hallway.  Then came the pastor’s office.  Then came another short hallway.  Then came an exit door.  And this door opened out onto the little countryside cemetery for those of this Marinette County Baptist Church who had passed away.  All this was the house of God where Gravel and Flanders and their two she-unicorn pets worshipped with their fellow Baptist believers.

Flanders pulled into the church parking lot, Replicar and trailer and all, and he parked across two parking spaces one behind the other.

“It’s a good thing, Mistress, that our church does not use parking meters,” said CasaBlanca.

“Yeah, girl.  We would have to use two parking meters,” said Lisa Nickels.

“Sometimes our trailer wheels slide in the sand,” said WhiteHouse.

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“It’s a good thing that my car does not do in this parking lot what my trailer does,” said Flanders.

And the Christians jumped out of the car, and the she-unicorns jumped off of the trailer.  And they came in.  “We’ll sit in the back,” said WhiteHouse about herself and her fellow she-unicorn.

“Parishioners like us cannot sit in rocking chairs,” said CasaBlanca about unicorns.

“We shall sit in front,” said Flanders.

“So we can be closest to the preaching,” said Lisa.

“You and I, Gravel, will rock,” he teased her.

“We will rock to the Word of God, Husband,” said Gravel.

“Just don’t rock too aggressively when Pastor preaches, good wife,” he said.

“It is not meet for a young cheerleader to fall backwards upon the floor in her rocking chair when Pastor is speaking,” said Gravel.

“That happens among the flock from time to time,” said Flanders.

“They turn red, but they are all right,” said Lisa Nickels.

“That never happened to me,” he said.

“I never had that happen to me, either,” she said.

And they picked out a pair of rocking chairs in the front row and began to rock as they waited for the service to start.  Their unicorns lay down upon their bellies in the back of the last row of chairs, and they waited for the service to start as well.  Soon other animal pets and their keepers filed into this house of God.  Nobody spoke.  All sat in silence and respect to God and to God’s man and prayed in silence for God’s Word to go forth mightily in today’s message.  And after a while, Pastor went to the pulpit, and today’s worship service began.  He began, saying to his flock, “Maranatha, my brothers-and-sisters-in-the-Lord.”

And the flock greeted him in like by saying, “Maranatha, good Pastor.”

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Pastor then said, “Deacon Doxology, would you have a word of prayer now for today’s worship?”

And Doxology Benediction stood up and prayed that God get the glory from today’s sermon.

Then Pastor gave the announcements of the church’s business.

Then he summoned Deacon Doxology to come to the front and take up the collection plate from his hands. And Pastor prayed that God get the honor in today’s offering.  And the church deacon passed the collection plate across the congregation of this Baptist church.  Those who had much gave much.  Those that had little gave little.  And God “smelled a sweet savor.” when He looked down and saw how great the offering was despite the poverty of this countryside church flock here in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin.  It was indeed Pastor who gave the most into this collection plate.  And even the children gave to the work of Marinette County Baptist Church.  All of Pastor’s people gave all of their tithes and their offerings—that is, ten percent of their gross income and a little bit extra beyond that–according as God had prospered them.  And this they did most willingly.  Flanders gave his offering in cash.  Gravel gave her offering in a check.

Then Pastor took back the offering plate from Doxology Benediction’s hands and set it back upon the table of his pulpit.  “Thank you, Brother,” said Pastor.  The deacon nodded his head in respectful regard to God’s man for this little church, and spoke not.  Then he returned to his seat in the auditorium.

And Pastor Preamble began his sermon of the day, having prayed the day before that God give him the words to preach that God would have him to preach to his flock for this day.  And he spoke what God had him to speak here at church to the edification of good and faithful born-again Christians: “Today, I will talk about trinities.  By this, of course, I refer to the trinity of God.  But I also wish to preach upon each human being’s trinity within himself.  First of all I shall talk about God’s trinity within Himself.  We all know about this trinity.  Bible students like to call this trinity of God ‘the

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Triune Godhead.’  As that great hymn ‘Holy!  Holy! Holy!’ goes—‘God in three Persons, blessed trinity.’  Who are the three Persons of this trinity that we know as God?  They are God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Lots of times, this Holy Spirit is also called ‘the Holy Ghost.’

And this trinity had all to do in the making of creation. This truth can be found in the Scriptures.  Turn with me, if you would to Genesis 1:26 and let us read this Bible verse out loud.”  And the faithful flock read out loud with their pastor, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:  and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”   Pastor then said, “This ‘us,’ that God is talking about is His own trinity.  This ‘our’ that God refers to is the three-in-one Godhead.”  He continued, “The most well-known place in the Scriptures that tell us about the trinity is I John 5:7.  This says the following:  ‘For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost:  and these three are one.’  The ‘Word,’ here, refers to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Let me tell you this, and take heed—some Bible translations leave out part or all of this important trinity verse.  These are not the King James Bible that God Himself wrote.  These are the modern translations of the Bible that were written by men without the call of God in their lives.  These false Bibles seek not to declare God’s holy trinity.  They might even dare to say that this verse was not in the original manuscripts.  These false Bibles end up causing confusion among Christendom in our day. These false Bibles take away from and add to God’s Word.  And those men who wrote them are accursed of God Himself.”

“Amen!” said Deacon Doxology Benediction.

“Amen!” said the rest of the flock.

Pastor continued, “Another well-known passage in the Bible about God’s trinity is found in Matthew 3:16-17.  This is about when John the Baptist baptized the Lord Jesus in the Jordan River.

Let me read to you this passage in full about this great ceremony:”  And Pastor read out loud to his

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eager flock, hungry for God’s Words, “’Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.  But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?  And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.  Then he suffered him.  And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water:  and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:  And lo a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’  Matthew 3:13-17,”  Pastor paused, then preached, “God the Father is implied in this passage in the words, ‘a voice from heaven, saying.’  God the Son is directly proclaimed when the Father said of Jesus, ‘This is My beloved Son.’  And God the Holy Spirit is declared in the words ‘the Spirit of God descending like a dove.’  This is the truth of the trinity of the Lord.  Indeed it is the trinity Who has an integral part in every man’s very salvation.  As you of my flock know how I put it:  ‘God the Father planned our salvation.  God the Son purchased our salvation.  God the Holy Spirit protects our salvation.’  By the way, the Holy Spirit can also be said to ‘prove our salvation.’  Another ‘p” to go with that pithy little doctrine.

“Amen to that!” said the deacon.

Pastor then resumed, “And then there is the doctrine of the trinity of God also in Paul’s epistles.

Turn with me, if you would, to II Corinthians 13:14, the last verse of Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth.  I would have you read this verse out loud as a flock, so that I can hear it in my ears and taste God’s Word more delightfully.

And Pastor, in silence, listened as nearly one hundred believers read this verse out loud to him in his happy delights upon hearing God’s Words:  “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.”

“Ah, the happy Word of God read by almost a hundred of God’s sons and daughters all together,” said Pastor Preamble in gladness.

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“Amen, Pastor!” Deacon Benediction said in accord.

Pastor then continued, preaching, “Then there is each and every one us with our own little trinity, as I have referred to earlier today.  We human beings, created in the image of God, are made of a trinity—body and soul and spirit.  The body is just the outer package of the soul and spirit within us.  It is temporal and sinful and passes away in time.  The soul is that part of us that loves and hates. The spirit is that part of us that knows.  Deacon Benediction, would you recite I Thessalonians 5:23 for us?”

And the Bible-learned Doxology Benediction recited this verse correctly, saying, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Thus my trinity and your trinity and all mankind’s trinity,” said Pastor Repartée Preamble.

After a moment of pondering, Pastor Preamble said, “And there is also another trinity that God has brought to my mind to share with you today right now.  It is the Satanic trinity in the Great Tribulation to come upon the world.  Satan, a copycat of the Lord, in his glory days of evil on Earth to come, will attempt to mimic God’s holy trinity of self with the Devil’s own unholy trinity of persons in the End Times.  After we are raptured, this most unholy trinity will rule the world for a while before Jesus comes back in His Second Advent to put down all evil.  This diabolical trinity will be the Devil and the antichrist and the false prophet.  It is written in Revelation 16:13 about this unholy trinity in Earth’s coming darkest hour, ‘And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.’  The dragon is the Devil.  The beast is the antichrist.  And the false prophet is, of course, the false prophet.  God will use this trinity to bring about Armageddon.  And these these three unclean spirits like frogs are an essential part of God’s sixth vial judgment in the Tribulation.”  Here the sermon of Sunday Morning Worship ended.

Then Pastor asked, “Good singers and musicians of the flock, would you come up to the front and sing and play the good hymn, ‘To the Work!’ for God?”

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“Amen, Pastor!” called forth the thirteen song leaders in the church.  And the five musicians with their five instruments came up and climbed down to the orchestra pit.  And the eight singers came up and climbed up upon their eight little daises.  And these thirteen made a joyful noise unto God with this hymn and its following lyrics:

“1.  To the work!  To the work! We are servants of God,

Let us follow the path that our Master has trod;

With the balm of His counsel our strength to renew,

Let us do with our might what our hands find to do.

Toiling on, toiling on,

Toiling on, toiling on;

Let us hope, let us watch,

And labor till the Master comes.

 

2. To the work! To the work!  Let the hungry be fed,

To the fountain of life let the weary be led;

In the cross and its banner our glory shall be,

While we herald the tidings, ‘Salvation is free!’

Toiling on, toiling on,

Toiling on, toiling on;

Let us hope, let us watch,

And labor till the Master comes.

 

3. To the work! To the work!  There is labor for all,

For the kingdom of darkness and error shall fall;

And the name of Jehovah exalted shall be

In the loud swelling chorus, ‘Salvation is free!’

Toiling on, toiling on,

Toiling on, toiling on;

Let us hope, let us watch,

And labor till the Master comes.

 

4. To the work! To the work! In the strength of the Lord,

And a robe and a crown shall our labor reward

When the home of the faithful our dwelling shall be

And we shout with the ransomed, ‘Salvation is free!’

Toiling on, toiling on,

Toiling on, toiling on;

Let us hope, let us watch,

And labor till the Master comes.”

 

“Very well done, O choir, O orchestra!” praised Pastor Preamble.  “Praise the Lord for this hymn and for all of the hymns.”

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And the musicians went back to their original chairs in the auditorium.

Then Pastor said, “Good deacon, would you conclude today’s service with a word of prayer?”

And Deacon Benediction finished today’s worship service with a good word of prayer.

Then Pastor said, “I now dismiss you from this Sunday Morning Worship.”

And the flock gathered together with the pastor and the deacon and each other for a good long time of fellowship there by the pulpit.

Then the flock gradually left the church building to go back to their homes.  And Flanders and Gravel and WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca were among the last to leave.  And when they came out to the parking lot, the four were filled with the peace of the Holy Spirit.  The pets climbed up the ramp to the flatbed trailer. The keepers climbed into the car.

WhiteHouse said, “What a great message!”

And CasaBlanca said, “What a great hymn!”

“Did you girls love it today?” asked Flanders.

“We did!” said Gravel and the two she-unicorns.

“I loved the fellowship after the most,” said Flanders.

And they began their trip back home.

Gravel said, “I’m glad that I won’t be here on the Earth when the unholy trinity takes over.”

“We believers will be raptured just before that happens,” said Flanders Nickels.

“My poor family,” said Gravel.  “They will be left behind,”

“Aye, Gravel,” said Flanders with a sigh.  “Left behind to face Earth’s darkest hour.”

“They will know a world under two world rulers,” she said.  “The antichrist and the false prophet.”

“The false prophet will make everybody to worship the antichrist.  And the Devil himself will come to indwell this antichrist,” said Flanders.

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“Mistress, I do believe Earth’s second cataclysm—this coming Tribulation—to be worse than Earth’s first cataclysm—the great flood,” said CasaBlanca.

“Woe unto the world then!” said WhiteHouse.  “Seven seal judgments from God.  Then seven trumpet judgments from God.  Then seven vial judgments from God.”

“And a one-world church,” said Flanders.

“And a one-world government,” said Lisa.

“And the number ‘666,’” said WhiteHouse.

“Whoever lets that number come upon his forehead or upon his right hand will be doomed for forever in Hell to come,” said CasaBlanca.  “Once he gets that number on his self, he will never be able to get saved for the rest of his life.”

“And he will get that number, or he will not be able to buy anything or to sell anything, in this life.” said Flanders.

“The Devil knows that he has but a short time,” said Gravel.  “This church age—this dispensation of grace—is winding down.  God’s next event on His timetable is the rapture of the believers.  And immediately after this rapture, antichrist will come on the scene.  And his false prophet, as well.  And the Devil will have his heyday on this Earth then.  And he will have his way with the world for seven years.”

“Indeed Satan knows that he has a short time now in Earth’s remaining history,” said Flanders.

“When the seven years of tribulation end, Jesus comes back to put down all evil and all wickedness.  He will throw the Devil into a bottomless pit of a jail for a thousand years.  And in this thousand years, Satan will not be able to work his wickedness on Earth.  And the world will be experiencing the peace of Christ’s Millennial Reign.  And Israel’s most glorious time will come upon them in this Millennium.”

“Master, if the Devil is in jail for a thousand years, does that mean that he gets out again when

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the thousand years is over?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Yes, girl,” said Flanders.

“What does he do then?” asked CasaBlanca.

“He again goes to war against God and His people,” said Gravel.

“Why, Mistress, does he never quit?” asked CasaBlanca.

“What happens then when he starts making trouble for people again like that?” asked WhiteHouse.

“All of creation will see at that time, the final and culminating battle between good and evil,” said the cheerleader.

And Flanders Nickels said, “This time, the Devil himself is cast by God Almighty Himself into the lake of fire to join the antichrist and the false prophet in hellfire for ever and ever, never again to fight God and good again.”

“Oh, good, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Good really does prevail over evil with God being the Good Guy,” said WhiteHouse.

“Then God creates a New Heaven and a New Earth,” said Gravel.

“And time as we know it ends,” said Flanders Nickels.  “And we born-again believers and the good angels of the Lord come into the beginning of eternity.”

“What is this eternity to come that is so different from time as we have it now, Master?” asked WhiteHouse.

“I don’t know, girl,” said Flanders.  “But it will be Heavenly.”

“Only God knows,” said Gravel.  “But it shall never end.”

“It will be a Good Place for sure, O mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“It shall be, girl,” said Gravel.  “Great is our future as born-again Christians,”

And then they were back home in the sand dunes of the outskirts of Beaver, Wisconsin.

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CHAPTER V

Reader, the following four chapters will be the gist of Gravel’s Dream of Dreams, and it shall serve as the “meat of this novel.”  One chapter will summarize her Mom’s soul alone.  One chapter will summarize her Dad’s soul alone.  One chapter will summarize the souls of each of her other family members alone.  And one chapter will summarize various groups together alone throughout her family.

First shall come a narrative of their unique false gods.  Then shall come the witnessing presented before them.  Then shall come allegories and parables and daydreams about such a loved one conceived in the praying heart of Gravel, their “messenger from Heaven.”

First shall come the soul of Lisa’s mom.   Mom’s false god was her jewelry box.  Her box of jewelry was special to her.  The Saviour Jesus Christ was a stranger to her.  She did not see her false idolatry that was so manifest in the eyes of her daughter Gravel.   As she said to Lisa about her jewelry, “As Mrs. Howell said on Gilligan’s Island, ‘Whoever says that money can’t buy happiness isn’t shopping at the right places.’” This was a chant of Mom.

Upon hearing this, Gravel duly said, “It is written, ‘And he said unto them, Take heed, and

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beware of covetousness:  for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.’  Luke 12:15, O Mom.”

To this her mom said to her, “That’s enough, Lisa.”  And Lisa was stifled.

When Gravel first began to come to her Baptist church, her mom became curious.  Mom wondered about Baptist churches, what they taught, what they believed, what they did.  And Gravel invited Mom to come to Marinette County Baptist Church with her.  At that time, the church met in the senior citizen center that they rented out for its services.  Their church had not yet had its own building in the northern Wisconsin countrysides.  And Mom came with her daughter to check out this new thing in her daughter’s life as a Christian.  And they both sat in the front row.  Pastor Preamble once again preached a great sermon, not without sharing the simple plan of salvation spontaneously for the first-time visitor.  Now Gravel’s mom was an intelligent woman.  She was both street smart and book smart.  But what she said to Gravel after the service was most unintelligent.  As Mom often said of other people, “They’re dumb as a box of rocks,” so, too, did Gravel think in like about Mom for what she had said.  This was what Mom did say:  “Women can’t wear slacks in the Baptist church.”  That was sign of a good Baptist church, indeed.  But to have let the Gospel of salvation spoken so powerfully from the pulpit slip by over her head was most tragically ignorant.

Then the day came for Pastor and Pastor’s wife to pay a friendly visit to Mom and Dad’s place in the city.  Pastor knew why he had come.  Gravel’s mom had a soul that Jesus died for.  He must tell her about Jesus.  He cared for Gravel’s mother’s soul.  And Pastor and his wife Emmy went out to Allouez to share the good news of the Gospel with her.  When they got there in the daytime, Dad was in bed for the day to get ready for his third shift workday later this night.  And Mom was alone with the two Godly Baptists.  And good Pastor asked Mom the eternal question, “Do you know where you’re going after you die?”  He had prayed earlier today for the boldness to ask this question of Gravel’s mom, whom he hardly knew.  She needed to hear this question.  She needed to ponder this question.

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She needed to answer this question in her heart.  But instead, she turned callous and offended and unfriendly.   And right then, that was when this visit turned bad.

She said a simple and terse and rude answer, “Nobody can know that for sure.”

And Pastor and Emmy were no longer welcome.  And after a while they found it time to leave.

Mom was wrong.  Pastor and Emmy were right.

On that visit and that eternal question, Mom’s understanding was opened up to her.  She thought about where she would go after death.  And she knew where it would be.  And she was convicted of her sins and her eternal destiny.  And she secretly knew that she was a bad woman going to Hell.  Even good and loving mothers, if they are not born again, are bad women going to Hell.  She saw eternity revealed to her for her first time, and she did not like what it looked like for her.  All she needed to do was to humble herself before Pastor and Emmy and ask questions about life after death and seek Jesus as her own Saviour.  But Mom was a woman of pride.  And, instead of finding out more about Christ from Pastor and his wife, Mom turned rough and turned unkind to Pastor and his wife, and would not say anymore.  As it is written in Isaiah 55:6, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.”  Right at home, when she had first heard her first eternal question, God could have been found, were she to have sought Him right then and right there.  And right then and right there, He was near, but she called not upon Him.  She had rejected the Gospel.  As Pastor so often preached at church, “It is no small thing to reject the Gospel,” and “The first time you hear the Gospel is the best time to get saved.”

A few days later, riding in the back seat of Dad’s car with Mom and Dad, Gravel found out about what happened on that mission trip to Mom and Dad’s house.  And Mom said the most dreadful thing any woman could say:  “Pastor Northern never said that!”  This was a chant of all chants.  No other chant ever proclaimed by any of her other family members had such definitive doom to it as this one did to Mom.  Who was this Pastor Northern?  He was the pastor of a free church in Aurora.  He

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was beloved of his flock.  He was esteemed as a true man of God by Mom.  And he had a charisma as of good whenever he stood behind his pulpit.  Mom had tragically discovered this free church one day when she rode past it and heard the church singing “The Church in the Wildwood.”  And she very quickly began to be faithful to this church.  And she found herself happy being a part of this free church’s flock.  And her life in Aurora was a happy life for her.  But he never said that, as Mom said in her chant.  Pastor Northern had never said what Pastor Preamble said.  Pastor Northern did not ask her ever, “Where are you going after you die?”  Pastor Northern did not have a burden for Mom’s soul. Pastor Northern did not care where Mom was going to spend eternity.  Pastor Northern did not warn Mom about Hell, as every good pastor must warn his flock for their soul’s sake.  Could it be that Pastor Northern himself were lost in his sins?  Could it be that he was not born-again?  Could it be that he was going to Hell?  Surely God had not called this pastor into the ministry.  It is written, “Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts;  Which devour widows’ houses, and for a shew make long prayers; the same shall receive greater damnation.”  Luke 20:46-47.  These two verses told of the vanity of the scribes and the other religious leaders of Jesus’s days.  These ministers in Jesus’s days were false teachers teaching false doctrines.  And because they led their followers astray with their preaching, they were going to have even hotter fires in Hell to have to suffer in their life to come.

Thus this “greater damnation” mentioned in this Scripture passage.  So, in like, for Pastor Northern in his life to come.  Mom believed Pastor Northern and did not believe Pastor Preamble.  And when Mom’s eternity in Hell were to come, Mom would know that Pastor Preamble was right all along, that he was the pastor who had truly cared for her, that he was the pastor whom she should have listened to.

And she would learn in Hell that Pastor Northern was wrong, that he never really cared for her as a pastor ought to, that he was never meant by God to be a minister.  And her words, “Pastor Northern never said that” would haunt her forever in the torments of Hell down below.  Indeed those words

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haunted Gravel for her mom’s sake all her days in her own life.  This chant was heinous.  The free church was gone now, and Pastor Northern was retired, and Mom and Dad no longer lived in Aurora.

But Pastor Northern, by his silence, had sealed Mom’s destiny.  They were both going to the Devil’s Hell after death.

As for Gravel’s witnessing to her mom, her earliest attempt at winning Mom’s soul was through a story she had written just for Mom.  Lisa liked to write stories for a hobby.  Before she was saved, she wrote stories of the world, the flesh, and the Devil—all of no literary quality.  And when she got saved, she repented of this lost writing, and she thought to maybe write stories for God instead.  And she went ahead to witness to her mom in a most unique way—the daughter wrote a story that was full of Bible verses for the mom.  It was called, “Despite the Love of a Son.”  And she wrote this with the love of a daughter.  This story, hopefully, might get Mom to think about the Saviour of the world Whom she so much needed.  Maybe Mom might get saved after reading this story.  Well, the Devil saw this.  And he did not like her story.  And he did not her mom to see this story.  And he did not want Gravel to write this story.  And he attacked this writer with a most uncharacteristic writer’s block.  As with her other Christian stories early in her walk with Christ, Gravel first hand wrote this in pencil on paper, then typed it up with her electronic typewriter on typing paper, then proofread it with correction tape and ribbon.  But oh how boring it was to write it all this while.  In her life as a writer of stories, boredom was the one thing that never happened to Gravel.  In her life before Christ, her stories were fun and exciting to write.  And in her life with Christ, her stories were also fun and exciting to write.

But not this one for the salvation of her mom.  Never before this witness story had the writing itself been so great a struggle for Gravel.  But her Mom had a soul to save.  And Gravel persevered and prevailed to the finish of her story.  And she felt like never writing a short story again.  It was done, though, and it was done to the best of her ability despite the Devil’s ennui heaped upon her at her writing desk.  And she gave it to Mom.  And Mom took it.  And Mom read it.  And Mom said, “I didn’t

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read the footnotes.”  These were the Bible verses.  Behold, a chant.  Woe, mom of Lisa.  Lisa knew that the Bible verses that she had put into this story about Jesus were perfect words, because they were from the King James Bible.  The King James Bible were the only perfect words on Earth.  And she felt that the only way that Mom could get saved through this story were by God’s Words within, her own words of story so dulled in writing and so uninspired of reading, compromised by Satan.  The Scripture verses in this short story Lisa had set in narrow margins and in single space throughout this written work.  Perhaps that gave them away as Scripture.  Mom must not like Scripture verses, perhaps.  And she did not read them.  She went out of her way not to read them.  She did not want to be convicted of her need for the Saviour.  Put simply those Bible verses were the only thing in that laborious story that could save her.  And when she was done reading this story written by the daughter whom she loved and who loved her, Mom was just as lost in her sins than she was before she read this story.  Despite the love of the Son.  And despite the love of the daughter.  The Son of God was rejected by dear Mom once again.  And the Devil got his way with this story despite Gravel and because of and through Mom.

Another time that Gravel witnessed to her mom was on the phone.  Gravel had had a beautiful dream that morning in bed.  She had dreamed that Mom and half of the rest of the family had prayed and accepted Jesus as Saviour.  Who the half of the rest of the family were, the dream never told her.  She just dreamed that half of the rest of her family became born-again.  And in this dream Mom was the one whose salvation was specific and individual and most joyful for Gravel.  Mom and she were rejoicing in her salvation in this dream.  And Mom was glad for having found Christ.  And when Gravel woke up and found that all of this was not true, she still had to share her dream with her truly lost Mom for joy of the dream.  And when she told Mom, Mom said a sincere and errant statement, “Lisa, I think that you’re addicted to God.”  Thus another chant.  “Addicted to God?”  Why, Whom else ought one to be addicted to?  Surely being addicted to God ought to be considered as a most good One to be addicted to!  Mom had previously mailed her a newspaper article in the religious section whose

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headline read, “Are You Addicted To God?”  And that had tested her early faith.  But now she had no doubts about her life with Christ.  Mom then went on to compare Gravel’s addiction to the family’s addictions, making all of such a personal idiosyncrasy on an even standing neither good nor bad:  “Your big sister has her drinks;  your big brother has his Scrabble; your little brother has his Blackjack; you have God.”  What blasphemy to compare a Christian’s walk with Christ like unto drunkenness and silly board games and gambling!

Another time Mom and Gravel talked on the phone about Mom’s congregational church in Oshkosh.  Mom was already divorced then and now living in an apartment.   Long and many were the years of Mom’s rejection of Christ, and Gravel had enough with Mom’s continual rejections of Christ to her own doom.  And Lisa thought that it was time to show Mom some tough love, and she was angry enough to stand up to Mom this time.

Gravel asked Mom about her Congregational church, “What does your church teach about getting saved?, Mom?” [That former free church of Pastor Northern was gone now from Mom’s life].

Mom said, “We don’t teach about that.”

Then Gravel said, “Mom, you need to get born again to get saved.”  And she recited John 3:3 to her on the phone;  “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  And she recited John 3:7 right after that, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

And what did Mom say to this Bible truth proclaimed to her point-blank?  “I’ve been a believer all of my life.”  Here was a chant again.  No person can be said to have been a believer all of his life.  In a true believer’s life, there is a time before his salvation and a time since his salvation.  And these two times are darkness before and light after.  That same conversation on the phone, Mom went on to say,  “I’m a believer, but I’m not a born-again believer.”  Hence another chant.  A believer and a born-again believer are one and the same.  One cannot be a believer and not be a born-again believer.  And

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one cannot be a born-again believer and not be a believer.  Then, to explain herself, Mom said, “I’m a believer, but my pastor is a born-again believer.”  Another chant from Mom.  Indeed a congregationalist church pastor is no more saved than is his own lost flock.  And, of course Mom went on to say, “I don’t need to be born again.”  Words of a wretched lost sinner.

Then came what Gravel called “the mission trip to Moreland Street.”  [Again, this was after the divorce, and Mom was an Oshkosh resident at this time].  Often times Baptist pastors in different cities work together to give out the word of God.  Gravel said to Pastor Preamble that her mom lived in Oshkosh now and that maybe some Baptist church in Oshkosh could visit her and try to get her saved.  Gravel’s Baptist pastor got a hold of a good pastor in a Baptist church in Oshkosh.  And this good Baptist pastor in Oshkosh sent out a team of two good women to visit Mom and to share the Gospel of salvation with her.  Whether this were Oshkosh Baptist Temple or Wildwood Baptist Church Gravel never knew.  And the mission trip to Moreland Street took place.  Mom told Gravel about it in bravado and in matter-of-fact tone.  The Baptist ladies came.  Mom was washing windows in the hallway outside of her apartment.  Mom saw these ladies as irksome and troublesome.  Mom was too busy washing windows to be bothered by these Christian women.  She had no time for them.  And she was rude and brusk and unkind.  And the two soul-winner women had to leave, Mom rejecting them most uncharitably.  And Mom continued merrily on her way washing windows, having nothing to do with Jesus and with Jesus people.  Mom had sent away two messengers-from-Heaven as Fuller Brush salesmen or as Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesmen!  She had no regard for door-to-door Christian women who had a burden for her soul.  And when Mom proudly told Gravel on the phone what she had done,  Gravel found no words to say, but had much to ponder in grief.  Mom had no time at all for Jesus.  She was trying to wash windows.  It was a very good thing for Mom that Jesus had time for her.  Jesus had time to die on the cross for Mom, but Mom had no time for Jesus to get saved from her sins.  Gravel knew, when she heard Mom tell her her side of the story of the mission trip to Moreland Street, that

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were she to end up dying in her sins, that God would, at the judgment seat of the unbelievers, play back this scene before her of the hallway with the two Baptist women.  And Mom would have no excuse for herself.  She would not be able to say, “But I never had a chance.  No one told me.  How could I know?”  And she would see her chance that she had so sternly turned down that night on Moreland Street.  And she would regret it for eternity in Hellfire.  And, though Gravel knew of no words of chant from this opportunity from God, this rejection of Christ was second only to Mom’s rejection of Christ in that mission trip of Pastor’s and Emmy’s to Allouez in its badness and in its hardness of heart.

After all of this across several years, Gravel declared in prayer one day in good wisdom, “There is nothing more that I can say to her, Lord.  I have gone as far as I can in witnessing to her.  For now on my part is simply to keep praying for her.  I now leave her soul in Your hands.  Save her, Jesus.  And don’t give up on her. “

Back in her more early years as a believer, in her most early days of Marinette County Baptist Church, Lisa Nickels began to discover new songs in her life to replace the old songs of the world that she had loved in her unsaved life.  These new songs in her heart were the hymns that her new church sang.  Gravel had discovered the church hymnbook.  And she began to, as the Bible put it, “make a joyful noise unto God.”  And while the King James Bible was her favorite book, the green church hymnbook became her second favorite book.  Throughout her many church services the church sang many hymns together, and they were all the good old-fashioned songs of the faith.   And Pastor let her take a church hymnbook home to keep for herself.  And she now had a few hymns whose melodies and lyrics she had come to know in her heart.  And in her future, many more good hymns would come into her heart with every church worship service.  One particular hymn in her early church life, when there were but a few hymns that she had discovered, stole her heart for the cause of Mom.  Her witness life to Mom was yet new and with hope.  Mom had not yet rejected Jesus lots back then.  And Gravel’s heart clung to the soul of Mom with faith.  This hymn was called, “Rescue the Perishing.”  And the

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hymn was new and magical.  And Mom’s soul was salvageable and savable back then.  This song was a song of hope and faith and belief and love.  Gravel loved Mom and her soul.  And Gravel would sit up in bed, her back against the headboard, open this hymnbook to hymn number 432 and sing “Rescue the Perishing” with the entreaty of prayer for Mom’s soul to God up in Heaven.  This was, for Lisa, “Mom’s hymn,” because Lisa sang it to God for Mom. The following are the lyrics of this great song of service:

“1.  Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,

Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;

Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,

Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying;

Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

 

2. Tho they are slighting Him, still He is waiting,

Waiting the penitent child to receive;

Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently,

He will forgive if they only believe.

Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying;

Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

 

3. Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,

Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;

Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,

Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.

Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying;

Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

 

4. Rescue the perishing, duty demands it–

Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide;

Back to the narrow way patiently win them,

Tell the poor wand’rer a Savior has died.

Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying;

Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.”

 

Gravel would sing this song in bed for Mom, and then she would sing spontaneous words of intercessory prayer for Mom’s soul to the tune of “Rescue the Perishing”  without its original lyrics.

Mom’s soul was lovely and sweet—like this song.  This Lisa did in bed before turning in for the night.

Then came Gravel’s “Melodie d’Amour,”  This was a standard prayer not sung in intercession

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up in bed.  Instead this was the personal title that Gravel gave to that most fervent and most effectual single prayer that she had prayed for Mom’s soul of all of her prayers for Mom’s soul.  It was in this prayer where Gravel came upon a dream allegory of Mom’s elusive salvation.  It was about a dreamworld called “Honah Lee,” and a dream soul-winner named “Puff.”  And it came upon Gravel in that idyllic prayer when she began to find her praying thoughts singing the melody of “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul, and Mary.  In this reverie of prayer, Puff was the perfect soul-winner, and Honah Lee was the place where everybody got saved. This magic dragon was integrity personified, and he ruled the land of Honah Lee, a lesser paradise right next to the greater Paradise.  There was no hypocrisy in Puff.  What he said to do he did himself.  What he did do was what God would have him to do.  His character was right and righteous and holy.  And his personality was honest and forthright and true.  And to whomever he talked about Jesus, they believed him, because he was Puff.  And by the time that the magic dragon was done witnessing about Christ to a person, that person was ready to get saved.  And Puff then led that person to salvation.  And that person was most assuredly saved.  And that person had a destiny in the greater Paradise, which was Heaven with Jesus.  Everybody who came to Honah Lee unsaved left Honah Lee saved.  Nobody who came to Honah Lee unsaved left Honah Lee unsaved.  In this Holy Spirit borne prayer that Gravel came to call “Melodie d’Amour,” herself singing that classic folk song melody, Lisa made-believe that Mom came to Honah Lee, met and talked with Puff the magic dragon, and became convicted of her sins, and became convicted of her need for the Saviour, and prayed the prayer with Puff and got born again; and then left Honah Lee and went right to Heaven just beyond. This prayer had turned a sad folk song about a lonely dragon into a happy song of a mother saved in the heart of Lisa.

About Mom in the spirit and soul of Gravel, Mom’s Bible verse was John 6:44, which says in the words of Jesus, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:  and I will raise him up at the last day.”

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About Mom in the heart and love of Gravel, her prayer life over many years for Mom’s salvation she did officially call “my Heartsong.”  This Heartsong was the collective lifestyle of prayers and witnessing and tears and dreams and worries over the soul of Mom for all of these years in the cares of her daughter Gravel.  And this John 6:44 was the symbol of her Heartsong.

And, more recently, the life dream of Mom actually getting born again Gravel did officially call endearingly for herself, “The Salvation That Lived Happily Ever After.”

And in her most fruitful soul-winning endeavors, Gravel officially saw that, to her, Mom’s soul was “my soul that I want the most to end up in Heaven.”

And in her life dream where she gets her whole family saved—that most glorious “Dream of Dreams.” as she called it– Mom was officially “the matriarch of the Dream of Dreams.”

 

How Mom loved her in her mother’s love for her children.  How much Mom went through as a mother of a family of six.  And how sacrificial was Mom’s love for Gravel.  Even in Gravel’s infancy did Mom endure a most fearful trial.  It was when Gravel was in the hospital at four months of age.

Suddenly Gravel began to choke on something in her throat.  Mom and Dad were in the waiting room just outside Gravel’s room.  And all the nurses reacted to the emergency.  Mom knew what was happening.  Gravel might die.  Mom grabbed Dad’s hand in this panic and squeezed it like she never squeezed anything before.  A very wise and sound common sense nurse then took action.  And this nurse forced her finger down through little Gravel’s throat.  And the object went down.  And the choking stopped.  And Gravel could breathe freely again.  This thinking nurse saved the baby Gravel’s life.  So great was Mom’s love for Gravel as a baby!  And Mom was so grateful for this good nurse.  Her daughter yet lived.  A newspaper article was printed about this, referring to this as the gift of life given on Christmas.  It was cut out and taped up with scotch tape for reinforcement and stored in the shoe box of family pictures.  Gravel, of course, could not remember this.  But she heard about it and

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shed tears about it over the anguish of her mom at having almost lost her back then.

And how much Mom had been tested by Gravel in her early years as a little girl.  In those years, Lisa was always complaining and grumbling, and Mom had to deal with that.  And she bore with Gravel like a saint.  Gravel complained about dinner.  Gravel complained about having to play “Duck Duck Goose” at the youth program at the local park.  Gravel complained about her siblings quitting games with her before she was ready to quit.  Gravel complained about having to go to school.  Gravel complained about having to go to bed at a proper bedtime for a little girl.  As a child, Lisa was most contrary.  But Mom continued loving her nevertheless.

But there were those times when Gravel was a good girl.  And Mom in her love would go ahead and reward the good Gravel with Gravel’s favorite treat from Mom.  And that was a piece of bread spread with butter and sprinkled with white sugar on top.  Little Gravel loved this treat.

And Mom was always home when Gravel and the other kids came home from school every afternoon.  Mom was a good and faithful stay-at-home Mom.  And she worked very hard to make dinner everyday that would please everyone.  In one particular meal of hers, Mom worked the most hard for her family.  That meal was steak and French Fries for a family of six.  Gravel grew up in a somewhat poor home.  And in this particular meal, Mom provided delicious Chuck steak for Gravel and all of the others.  And the French Fries?  Why, Mom went ahead and hand cut with a knife every last individual French Fry before cooking them.  And she made enough of them that Gravel alone got to have three helpings of French Fries every time.

And then there was the time when Gravel turned eleven years old.  On her eleventh birthday, Mom asked her, “Lisa, what do you want for your birthday dinner?”

And Lisa at once said, “French Fries and onion rings and shrimp!”

And Mom did go ahead and worked with great effort and deep-fried lots of French Fries and onion rings and shrimp in big pots of oil just for Gravel’s whims.

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And Mom went to bat for Gravel at her grade school when the principal called her to complain about Gravel.  Mom knew that Lisa was not a problem child.  The principal was a problem principal.

And Mom said in challenge, “What is Lisa doing?”

And the principal said, “She’s loitering.” [This was after school let out for the day.]

And Mom said in challenge to the principal, “Is Lisa stealing hubcaps?  Is Lisa writing graffiti?  Is Lisa vandalizing anyone’s property?”

“No,” said the principal.  “She’s loitering.”

Mom had no further regard for this grade school principal.

And, in an upper grade in grade school, at the age when students are required to give reports before the class in front of everybody, Gravel would always come to Mom in her bedroom and practice her reports to Mom the night before.  And Mom was always a captive audience.  One of those reports was on “tournaments”—those Medieval jousting contests with lances.  And another of those reports was on tornadoes.  And there were others.

And in the country in her high school years, for fun, Gravel went out back to play in the spring run-off of the creek.  She would run through the water and through the mud out back and pretend to be participants of a foot race through the course in make-believe.  And before indulging in this fantasy, Gravel would take Mom’s knee-high black rubber boots and put them on.  And though Mom’s boots were clean when Gravel borrowed them, they were later full of mud when Gravel returned them.

Mom never said much about this.

And one day Mom put Lisa to work in the garden.  Only this time it was for money.  Mom never believed in giving allowances to her kids for work around the house.  Being an old-fashioned Mom, she knew that children ought to help out in the family as their obligation as kids.  But this time she chose to proffer a hire for Gravel were she to do some weeding in the garden.  Mom’s hire was for twenty-five cents for each row in the garden and for ten cents for each row of corn in the garden.  With

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earnings as incentive, Gravel went to work pulling weeds and doing so with quality work.  She worked

all day in the sun in the garden.  And when she was done, she earned $3.50.  Money did go far in those days, though.  And that was much money for a girl in junior high school back then.  And Gravel was the better for the good hard work.

Gravel’s official duty in the family in her childhood days was to feed the dog.  At that time, Lisa loved all dogs—especially big dogs.  And the family dog was a Shepherd-Collie mix.  And she was so grateful to be honored with the duty of feeding the dog.  First she would say to the dog, “It’s coming!”  and knock the metal water bowl against the metal food bowl.  Then she would say to the dog, “Eat!” and approach him with both bowls.  Then she would set both bowls down and say, “Chow time!”   And she always gazed upon her dog as he ate his dinner.  Even when Mom thought that maybe the little brother might want some of that responsibility to enjoy as well, through insistence, Gravel never had to concede to her little brother this daily joy.  And Mom let her to continue feeding the dog all by herself.

She thanked Mom for this.  And the little brother was disappointed.

And Mom loved her as an adult kid moved out of home nowadays, too.  For Wisconsin winters, Mom always provided her with coats and scarves and hats and mittens and Winter socks. And for summer rainstorms, Mom got her some nice yellow raincoats.  And she always mailed her happy birthday cards with personalized handwritten notes from her heart.  And on the day that Gravel had moved out of the house to live on her own, Mom provided her with a kitchen table and chair set and with a great abundance of metal silverware and China and cups and mugs, and a green wooden bin that Gravel was fond of, and even a helping hand in the move.  And Mom had a little cry when she came back home after having helped her beloved middle child to move to her new place.

But Gravel made sure to keep in touch with Mom.  She promised and went on to live up to her promise that she would call Mom every day.  She loved Mom and loved to talk to her.  In like, Mom loved Gravel and loved to talk to Gravel.

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CHAPTER VI

After having talked about her mom, let me now elaborate on her dad, these two her most precious of all souls out there.

Dad’s false god was his motorcycle.  It was a smaller motorcycle just right for a smaller man.  In his young adult years, before Gravel had come along, he rode an Indian Scout motorcycle.  Nowadays, as a family man a few decades older, he rode a Honda motorcycle.  He loved to ride his motorcycle from town to town throughout Wisconsin to go from thrift store to thrift store.  In musings he would sometimes say, “When I die, I want to be buried, sitting up on my motorcycle.”  In musings of her own for the dad she loved, she sometimes thought, “Someday all that will be left of Dad is his name on a family tree, followed by the epitaph, ‘He loved motorcycles.’”  In Job 16:22, God’s Word said this about Dad:  “When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.”

Being the patriarch of the family, the oldest member of Gravel’s family, Dad would be liable to be the first to die in her life despite her Dream of Dreams.  He did not have forever to come around and seek Jesus.  “(…:  behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”  II Corinthians

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6:2.  He was already retired now for some years.

Dad was unique in Gravel’s Dream of Dreams life goal.  He was the first person to whom she tried to lead to Christ.  It was in her life before her Baptist church.  At that time she wrote witness letters to unsaved people for whom she cared.  And Dad got the first one.  She was even a little ashamed of Jesus at that time.  She was born-again for only a few weeks, and she had to get over the offense of Jesus as her old woman of sin.  In this witness letter, she wrote the testimony of her salvation.  Dad was flattered, but he was not interested.  Gravel well knew how hard it would be to win Dad’s soul for Christ—she well knew how hard that she had made it for herself to swallow her pride and seek and find Jesus.  She, most of all, knew how the Good Lord Jesus was “the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense” to the lost, as it says in the Scriptures.  And Dad was definitely the hardest to convert to Christianity.  He sometimes got mad and yelled when things did not go his way.  Surely he would get mad and yell were she to pursue his soul any further than this one witness letter.

Early in her Baptist church life with Flanders, Pastor and Emmy agreed to their “mission trip to East Mission Road,” where Mom and Dad lived in Allouez.  Gravel was at work then.  And Mom was there alone.  And Dad was in bed for the day for his third-shift workday later on this day.  As you remember, that visit stirred up a wrath in Mom.  But it stirred up Dad to wrath, as well, when Mom told him after he got up, what happened.  You remember Mom’s chant about Pastor Northern.  Well Dad had a chant about this visit from Pastor Preamble and Emmy as well.  Gravel was in the car with Mom and Dad when they told their seething indignation to her.  And Dad said about that visit of Gravel’s good pastor and his wife, “It’s all right to believe what you want to believe; just don’t force it on others!”  Thus a chant.  This chant was Dad’s chant.  And it was his most provocative chant of all of his chants.  No, Pastor and Emmy had not forced any thing upon Mom.  He simply and humbly and gently tried to make her to think about eternity, for the good of her eternal soul.  All he asked was, “Do you know where you’re going after you die?”  And Mom was offended.  And Dad, who was in bed at the

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time, was offended.  And as Pilate and Herod were made friends together in their united opposition to Jesus, in the Bible, so, too, were Mom and Dad in league together against Pastor Preamble of Marinette County Baptist Church.  Dad could surely go to Hell, saying this dreadful chant to his grave.

And, herself being a writer as a hobby, Lisa sought to write a story for Dad, too, just as she had her mom.  She wanted to tell Dad all about Christ’s glorious resurrection on Easter.  She filled the story with I Corinthians 15:12-20, New Testament scripture all about the resurrected Jesus.  And she put into her story Romans 5:12 and preached upon it in her story for him.  Romans 5:12 says this:  “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”  Gravel thought that this Bible verse might get Dad to thinking about death and to become edified to God’s ways.  Dad, being a temporal man, never paused to think that there could be anything other than death when life’s time came to end.  He had a proverb that he made up about death in his ideology—”Life is a period of light between two darks.”  That is, to him, every human being had darkness before life, light during life, and darkness after life.  He had a dogged mortal understanding that all had to die someday and then return unto the dust from whence all had come.  Dad never knew how unnatural death is in creation wrought by the Maker of life.  He never knew that growing old and dying of natural causes was not in God’s original plan of creation. And he never knew that sin was so bad in the holy God’s eyes that sin had to bring about death to His creation.  It was Earth’s first two sins, committed by Adam and Eve, both disobeying God in the Garden of Eden, that brought the curse of death upon mankind.  Perhaps if Dad saw this Bible verse that maybe he might be glad with such novel truths and maybe go on to ask his daughter about her Saviour.  But when Emmy heard Gravel tell her what she hoped Dad’s reactions could be upon finding out the real reason for death, Emmy said, “He will just end up getting mad.”  And Gravel made the decision not to mail this story to Dad.  And Lisa was glad for not giving this to him.

One Christmas upon Gravel’s immediate family, for a Christmas present, she gave Dad a book

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by the good Christian writer Hal Lindsay.  This book was called “The Late Great Planet Earth.”  And the Lord Jesus was preeminent throughout this good book.  Maybe this time Dad might not get mad about Jesus.  Well, he went on to read it.  How much she did not know.  And he became most characteristically angry.  And he yelled in contempt of Hal Lindsay, exclaiming to Lisa, “That’s one man’s opinion!”  Dad was mad at Christ again.  Hence another chant from Dad.  He did not like the truth when it was written.  And he did not like the truth when it was spoken.  And any truth about Jesus that made him uneasy ended up making him angry.  Indeed if this Christmas present book were about Buddha or Muhammad or Joseph Smith, Dad would not have been so fiery.  But this book was about Christ, and that made him fiery.

On one Christmas, Gravel slipped a salvation tract with each Christmas present she gave out—within underneath the wrapping paper.  Dad saw his tract in his present, and he said in tolerance, “You’re trying to get me saved.”  But he had no clue of the great signification of what he was saying.  He knew the right words—words most basic in the talk of believers—but he did not really know them in his heart.

Then came the fateful day of the church’s “mission trip to Bridgeview Gardens” to tell her Dad about Christ.  This was after the divorce, and Dad now lived alone in a trailer park in the town of Menasha.  Gravel was thinking that maybe Dad this time might be more receptive to the Gospel, having been just recently divorced and being alone now to think about things.  It was a Tuesday night.

And Deacon Benediction pulled in with his Blazer truck to pick up Gravel to go there.  The clock in her apartment read, “five o’clock.”  Then the deacon and herself went to church to meet with Pastor.  And Pastor had a word of prayer at the church building.  Then the three then went in Pastor’s car to go and talk to Gravel’s dad down in the Fox River valley.   It was a surprise visit for Dad.  And he gladly let in his daughter and her two church friends.  And they talked about things for a while that Dad knew about—motorcycles, World War II, the Green Bay Packers.  Pastor, ever-aware of souls, was waiting for the

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right time to speak and begin talking about the Saviour.  And Pastor found the moment for him to do his work.  Pastor began to tell the testimony of his own salvation—how he had first come to Christ.  Now Gravel had already heard Pastor give his testimony many times over, and she already knew everything about it.  But this time it was her Dad hearing it, and hearing it for his first time.  This time was the most exciting time for Gravel to have heard her good Pastor tell his testimony.  Pastor told about how he was driving his car down the road one winter night.  He told about a drunk driver coming down the road and approaching him.  He told of how this drunk driver began to close in upon him in his lane.  And he told about how the drunk driver hit his car in an accident.   He told of how this drunk driver then fled the scene of the accident.  And he told of how he was all right despite the crash.  And he told about how the police came.  And he told of how that drunk driver began to come back toward the scene of the accident.  He told of how the police were still there when the hit-and-run driver came back.  He told of how this drunk driver’s car gave him away with its great damage as evidence.  And Pastor began to tell Dad about how this accident got him to first start thinking about death and where he would go after death.  Still not looking up at the speaker and the listener of this testimony of salvation, Gravel’s heart filled up with wild hopes and aspirations for Dad to finally humble himself before God and pray and get saved this time. She saw a clock in Dad’s trailer now.  It was a table clock.  It had a black face and white numbers and white hands and white gradations.  She saw it say six-thirty.  No doubt Pastor would continue his testimony and tell Dad about how a godly woman named Mrs. Booth would invite him to dinner at her and Mr. Booth’s house.  And how Mrs Booth would ask him where he would go after he died.  And how he would say that he was going into the army in the Vietnam War very soon, because he was drafted.  And how he did not know where he would go if he died in battle.  Then Pastor would tell Dad how Mrs. Booth led him to salvation by leading him through a prayer.  Now was the time for Gravel to look up.  What would Dad look like there sitting by Pastor and Doxology? What would be his body language?  What would his face tell?  What was Dad thinking?

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Horror of horrors!  Terror of terrors!  Dad’s face was turned away from Pastor’s face.  He was silently fuming inside.  He was getting mad again.  And then Dad got to his feet, asked them to leave, and marched around this trailer’s living room.  Pastor had to stop his testimony of salvation even before he could mention good Mrs. Booth.  This missionary trip to Bridgeview Gardens was a bust.  Dad went ahead and exclaimed in indignation to the three, “What makes you think that you are smarter than me?”  Hence a third chant of Dad—a truly crazy and illogical chant spoken by a mad man.  Surely none of the three believers thought that any of them were smarter than Dad.  None of them asked Dad if Dad thought that any of them were smarter than Dad.  And none of them asked Dad if he thought that any of them thought that he was smarter than Dad.  And soon Gravel could see that Dad thought that she and her church people had come this evening to try to get religion into Dad’s life.  And this was not what the three had come for.  Nay, they had come to try to get Dad to become a Christian instead.  And becoming religious and becoming a Christian were not only not the same, but, indeed were complete opposites to each other.  Religion damns.  But Christianity saves.  They had come to save Dad from his sins, so that he did not have to go to Hell.  The three left Dad in his sins and came back home up north. Indeed, even to these days in the sand dunes of Beaver, did Lisa Nickels remember that turned-away face of Dad with great vexations and utter disappointments and some shaking.

Then came 9-1-1 upon America with the attack on the World Trade Towers and with the attack on the Pentagon and with the attempted attack on the White House.  America suddenly no longer felt safe.  And Gravel found an opportunity to write to her loved ones to try to get them to start thinking about their eternity.  And, of course, Dad got a most loving letter from Gravel.  In this witness letter Gravel told him that he was going to Hell.  She told him that she loved him.  And she told him that she loved him enough to warn him.  Reader, what more loving thing can a believing daughter do for her unbelieving dad than to warn him about the fires of Hell?   In Ezekiel 3:18 it is written, “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the

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wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.”  A parallel verse could be found in Ezekiel 33:8.  Her love for Dad compelled her to write what she wrote to him.  Again Dad got angry.  When she called him up on the phone not long later—she called him regularly in her life away from home now—he said to her, “I have nothing to say to you.”  And he hung up on Lisa his daughter.  She had done the right thing, but ended up being persecuted for it.  But she knew that she had done right.  For his blood would not be on her hands now.  And she continued loving Dad.

After this witness attempt, there was not much more that Lisa could do now for Dad and his soul.  She had gone as far as she could in her witnessing to him about Jesus.  Now she had to leave Dad in God’s hands.  Truly God could speak to Dad louder than she could about his lost state.  Maybe he might believe the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.  So, from then on, she prayed and dreamed and reflected about Dad’s so great spiritual need.  And her sharing the Word of God with him ended.

There were some words that Gravel had not asked Dad in her former soul-winning attempts with him.  These words were a golden eight-word question.  And this question was, “Dad, do you want to get saved today?”  This simple and succinct query he never heard were what she personally called “The Gilded Words.” These Gilded Words needed a gilded response—the words, “Yes.  I do,” which he could never say.  And she wished now to have thought upon this direct interrogative to ask of him.

And she came upon that wonderful dream in the night where Mom and half of Gravel’s family got saved.  Right after she had led Mom to salvation in this dream she then turned to Dad.  And Dad, adamant and firm, said nothing and did shake his head, “No.”  Why, Dad’s heart for the Gospel was so

hard that even in Gravel’s dream he could not get saved.

As for Dad’s understanding of life, he believed only in things that he could see and touch.   He could not see Jesus; nor could he touch Jesus.  Therefore Jesus was not.  Any thinking believer with true faith could easily prove the error of Dad’s thinking with that believer’s knowledge of Jesus as

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personal Saviour.  It was a simple matter of faith in a God Whom one could not see.  One could come up to Dad and say to him, “Do you believe that Russia is real?”

And Dad would have to say, “Yes.  Russia is real.”

“Have you been to Russia?” that one could ask him.

“No.  I have never been there,” Dad would have to say.

“Then how do you know that Russia is real?” that one could say to Dad.

Or one could say, “It’s windy today.”

And Dad would agree and say, “It is windy.”

And that one could say, “Can you see the wind?”

And Dad would have to say, “No.  I cannot really see the wind.”

“Then how can you tell that it is real?” that one could say to Dad.

And Dad would try to defend himself by saying, “I can see it moving the branches and the leaves around.”

[Or the question, “Do you have a brain?”  And the answer, “I do.”  Then the question, “Can you see your brain?”  And the answer, “I do not.”  And the question, “Then how do you know it is real?”]

Faith in God is the same reasoning.  Though God the Father is a Spirit, one can see Him in the creation of the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom.  And one can see Him in the creation of the planets and the stars in the universe.  Further one can see Him in his own conscience.  And all human beings are endowed with a knowledge of God within him.  All who die in their sins are said in the Bible to be “without excuse” and “willingly ignorant.”

Dad’s philosophy about life and death was revealed one day at Mom’s aunt’s funeral.  This was Gravel’s great-aunt.  At the funeral the preacher said that people’s hearts are broken when loved ones pass away.  Well, after the funeral, Dad said to others in the family, “The heart is not an organ that feels grief.  It is simply an organ that pumps blood.”

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As for passing away, Dad always said to the kids, “Death is when the heart stops beating.”

But the Word of God tells what death really is in the eyes of God—that it is when the soul leaves the body.  In the book of I Kings, the son of a widow woman of Zarephath passed away, and Elijah worked to bring him back to life for her with the power of God.  In chapter seventeen verses twenty-one and twenty-two, God’s Word says, “And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.   And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.”  Hence the soul of the boy came back into his body, and he was resurrected.

And even though Dad could see the griffins flying around in the skies and had his own griffin who spoke Devil’s lies to him, he did not comprehend that called “spiritual warfare.”  The evil angels fought the good angels just as the Devil fought God Almighty.  And humankind was caught in the middle.  The age-long war between good and evil was all about the souls of people.  In Ephesians 6:12 it is written, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Early in Lisa’s prayer life for Dad’s soul, she came upon two dreamscapes, fantasies that she thought up with God.  In these make-believe scenarios, Dad would be saved, and she need never worry over his eternity again.  In one fantasy, she would be kneeling beside her bed in her apartment in the dark of night.  And the phone would ring.  In the dark apartment, she would go to her little hallway in the middle of the apartment and pick up the phone.  And the voice on the other end would tell her, “I’m saved.  I’ve just been saved.”  This would be Dad.  Amen to so lofty a daydream.  In the other fantasy, she would visit Mom and Dad on Mission Road, and she would see him in his reading chair in the living room with his reading glasses on and reading from the Bible I Kings chapter 1.   This chapter was all about King David’s son Adonijah trying to usurp the throne of Israel away from David’s son and heir apparent Solomon before Solomon was even anointed and crowned.  The story of I Kings 1

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was not a greater Bible story to Gravel more than any other Bible story.  Rather, she picked the book of I Kings for this fantasy to symbolize the whole Bible, this book being one of the books of the history section of the Bible.  And chapter one seemed to be a good place for Dad to start reading from I Kings.

Amen to her daydream of Dad reading from the Holy Bible.

About her greatest fantasy of Dad’s salvation?  It had to be a make-believe breezeway in a make-believe house.  None of any of the houses that Gravel lived in had a breezeway in it—not in her childhood and not in her adulthood.  She had always been fond of them when she did see them in other people’s houses.   What better place than a breezeway paradise for Dad to pray and accept Christ in?

She and Dad would find themselves alone in a breezeway somewhere.  It is night.  Outside the windows in the front is darkness. Outside the windows in the back is darkness.  Inside the breezeway is the cozy light of two incandescent table lamps.   A big lamp rests upon a wooden lamp table in the back corner.  A little lamp rests upon a rickety card table in the front corner.   There are four doors in this breezeway—all in the center of each of the four walls.  The back door leads to the backyard.  The one side door leads to the garage.  The other side door leads to the rest of the house.  And the front door leads to the front yard.  She and Dad sit down at the card table.  Upon the card table is a salvation tract in red print and white background, and it is entitled, “How To Be Saved And Know It.”    Also upon this card table is an index card handwritten by Gravel with the words of a sample sinners’ prayer that she could read out loud and guide him to salvation line-by-line with her.   And also upon this card table is a little red King James Version pocket New Testament with the well-known Romans’ Road of salvation verses in the back as an appendix.  Here she asks him the Gilded Words—”Dad, do you want to get saved today?”  And he answers with the Gilded Answer, “Yes.  I do.”  And here in this interior little paradise, Gravel leads her beloved Dad to so great salvation.

Who was Dad among the very many souls for whom Gravel cared?  His soul was, to her, “the soul that I want the least of all souls to go to Hell.”  Who was Dad among her family and loved ones in

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her prayer life of her Dream of Dreams?  He was “the patriarch of the Dream of Dreams.”  What was the sum of all of her intercessions for and testifying of Christ to and surrealistic worlds of fancy about and great fears of burden for her Dad over the course of years?  She called this burden for Dad’s soul “My Song in the Night.”  In Psalm 77:5-6, it is written, “I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.  I call to remembrance my song in the night:  I commune with mine own heart; and my spirit made diligent search.”  Hence the origin of this title.  And what was Gravel’s Bible verse that could be called “Dad’s verse?  What was the symbol of this Song In The Night prayer life?  It was John 6:65 wherein God says in Jesus’s words, “And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my father.”   And later on in her prayer life for Dad, she called his needful coming to Christ “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of.”   And she sang prayers for him as she listened to Christian songs on her tape cassette player in bed in the dark of night.

Dad sacrificed much for Gravel and for the family in her growing up years.  Having been in the city for some years, Mom wanted to move to the country and enjoy the country life.  She was a country lady.  So Dad transferred from Kimberley-Clark in Neenah to Kimberley-Clark in Niagara.  He was a computer programmer for this big paper manufacturer.  But as soon as he had his interview with his new boss up north, he knew that he was in for a rough time at work with this boss.  And as it turned out, all became as he feared.  This new boss always promised his clients that he would get the job done for them very quickly.  And that he did, Dad doing his part.  And that meant that to get it done on time, Dad had to work much overtime with the income of salary.  And things came to a peak one day when Dad had to work twenty-four hours straight in the computer room, go to bed for five hours, then get up and go back to work for another twenty-nine hours straight in the computer room.  And in the midst of this very much labor, his boss did say in great wrath and not without error, “You’ve got this all wrong!”

Poor Dad!  All this came upon him because Mom wanted to move to the country.

And Dad was also affable man when most men might not be so affable.  For instance, there was

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that time when Gravel and Little Brother, both grown up, were shoveling the long driveway of Mom and Dad’s in Allouez.  And brother and sister got to playing games with their shovels, scooping up snow and hurling this snow upon one another.  Well, Gravel did this with her shovel in retaliation.  But when she did this, the head of the shovel flew off, and it slid up across the hood of Dad’s car in the driveway, and it slid up across the windshield of Dad’s car, and it flew off of the top of the car onto the driveway next to Dad’s car.  She looked up at the window of the dining room from where she stood.  And there stood Dad in the window.  He had seen the whole thing.  And he loved his car.  But he was not the least bit upset about this accident with the shovel and what it might have done to his car.

Another time, in high school yet, in the countrysides of Kunesh, Gravel was taking Drivers Ed.

And she was practicing her driving with Dad’s car in the back of the yard.  Well, when she went ahead to practice with “reverse” on the shift and looked back, she found that the car was stuck and would not go backwards.  She did not think about this much.  She looked ahead and saw that this car was providentially hindered by a little clump of small trees with narrow trunks about one-or-two inches in diameter along the left front of the car.  She thought nothing of this and did go on to more practicing back here.  Later on, the day came when Dad noticed a dent in the car—in the front left side of it.

And suddenly Gravel knew.  She had put a dent in Dad’s car when she was stopped in her place by those small trees.  She had no clue about this until now.  Dad loved his car, but he was not upset that Lisa had done this to his car.

Then there was that time when Dad and Gravel and Little Brother were playing the basketball shooting game “Twenty-One” out back by the little red barn.   Their family version of Twenty-One was unique, and it involved long shots worth many points.  And those same types of tall trees with narrow trunks that had done their mischief on Dad’s car, Little Brother thought to make their mischief fall now upon today’s Twenty-One game.  Many of these young trees were not far from the hoop.  It did help also that the basket and backboard for their game in this place were just above the edge of the roof of

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the little red barn, scarcely six feet above the ground.  And just as Dad threw the basketball on a long shot, Little Brother grabbed a hold of one of those trees and began to swing it back and forth.  The ball hit the tree and missed the basket.  Little Brother had effectively knocked Dad’s basketball right out of the air with that little tree.  But Dad did not mind.  He was playing with his son and daughter, and he was happy doing so.  That wily Little Brother!

And there was that game that Dad played with Gravel that always gave them both delight.  They played this game when she was yet a little girl.  In this game, Dad, a little man, would hold up his arm before her, his arm bent a little at the elbow, clench his fist, and challenge her to pull down his arm.  The little girl would grab a hold of his fist and try to pull down his one arm with her two arms.  She could not do it.  She even lifted both of her feet off of the ground and held on in the air.  But still she could not pull down Dad’s arm.  She could not win this game even when she was a grown-up woman.  Dad was a fun dad.

And Dad taught her many things about life when she was a little girl.  He taught her that in the workplace it does not matter how hard you try, but, rather, whether you get the job done and done right.  He taught her that in college, they teach you how to learn.  He taught her then when you hear the car engine start to go “knock knock knock!” that the rods are blown and your engine is ruined.  He taught her that Michelob and Andeker were premium beers.  And he taught her her first understanding of football that one day when, during a Green Bay Packer game on TV, he began to pound his arm on the chair and say, “Fumble!  Fumble!”  He also taught Gravel that the cars that show the dirt the most are white cars and black cars.

Dad first got into his career in computers in Kimberly-Clark paper mill in Neenah. He was a computer programmer.   Computers at that time used paper punch cards.   And the computer that Dad worked with was a mainframe computer, which took up a whole room. He drew flowcharts and told his family about his flowchart work pencil, “Don’t touch my Eversharp.”  And Dad gave little Gravel a

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paper roll of green tape with punch holes that the company did not need.  There was a whole dump bin

of them, and Gravel was fond of the one that Dad let her have.  Later on in her life, Dad worked at Shade, Incorporated, himself still in the computer business.  This company was in the industrial park of east De Pere.  And he worked in the computer room, this time as a computer operator.  His was a third shift job.  And he let the grown-up Gravel come to his workplace with him one night.  And she got to enjoy her first time in her life the experience of staying up all night till the next morning.  Dad’s work computer now was much smaller than they were when he had just started out.  And she saw him work with disks and bursters and collators.  The warehouse of Dad’s company here was filled with huge rolls of paper bigger than unicorns and smaller than cars.  There was even a little library inside this building which Gravel visited in the semi-dark that night.  This was the dad whom Gravel loved.

And the things that Dad gave her as his daughter in all of her years of life—whether a girl or a woman.  He gave her a motorcycle ride, despite Mom’ worries for her, and Gravel found out from Dad that one has to lean the motorcycle toward the inside of the curve when the road takes a curve to it.  And one time she and Flanders had gone to Mom and Dad’s cabin for a few days together, and they both were allowed to take the family dog “Blitzen,” with them to the cabin.  Well up north here was wood tick season.  And when Gravel brought the dog back home, though she did not know it, he was full of ticks.  What did Dad do about it?  He went ahead to meticulously pull out all of the ticks out of Blitz.  Gravel should have done that.  But Dad went ahead and did this just for her.  And Dad taught her a great wisdom that he knew about motorcycle riding.  He told her that if one is riding a motorcycle, and he sees a car stopped at an intersecting road, not to assume that it will not pull out in front of you.  Why was that?  Because the car driver may not see you because you are driving a motorcycle and not a car.  She remembered her favorite two presents that she had received as a little girl.  And Dad had a part of them.  And Mom was the one who sent him after them.  One was a beautiful red and white toy rocket made out of sheet metal.  Dad had gone specifically to a local welding company to ask if they would

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make such a thing.  And they did.  And he brought it home to her.  And she fell in love with that little rocket at once.  It must have stood at least three feet high.  And it was near and dear to her.  And the other special present was a most quaint little wooden step ladder with three steps.  She was very glad for this.  She even played baseball in the back yard with this as a tee, with a plastic ball set in place by two twigs on the top step and with a plastic bat to hit the ball off of the top step.  And her favorite two presents from Dad in her life as a young woman were most unique and were most telltale of her singular tastes.  She wanted a piston with a flat head to call her own.  And Dad went ahead to take out a piston from an old lawn mower that was broken down.  He gave it to her.  And he gave it to her just exactly like she wanted it to be–with a flat head and with the rings and its pin and its clips and its rod and its rod bearing—all complete.  As for her other special gift from Dad, she told him how she would like to have a motorcycle chain someday just to call her own.  Why?  Because it looked like a neat thing to have.  And one day he came to her workplace and gave her his old motorcycle chain that he had taken out of his extra motorcycle that he was keeping just for spare parts.  And this motorcycle chain was completely clean and free from any motor oil; he had first washed it in gasoline before giving it to her.  And the wonderful thing that Dad had said to her one day out of the blue, himself knowing her so well as her father.  It was so true and so praiseworthy both at once in a paradoxical way.  Indeed she was flattered two-fold in one sentence.  And to this day, Gravel knew that this was the nicest thing that Dad had ever said to her.  Dad said, “Lisa, you’re crazy, but you are my favorite.”  This “crazy,” referred to her eccentricity which she loved about herself.  And this “my favorite,” referred to herself as Dad’s favorite kid of all four of his kids.  This was the dad who loved Gravel.

Dad was getting older in life now.  His family always had a heart condition on the male side.  His own dad died in his fifties.  His own grandpa died in his fifties.  And now Dad was in his seventies.  He had already had major heart surgery himself. She was praying that Dad live long enough to seek Christ.  In Heaven there is no such thing as being in one’s seventies, of growing old, of dying.

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CHAPTER VII

Let the reader now find out about the rest of Gravel’s family, their idols, their chants, their resistance to the Gospel, their role in Gravel’s Dream of Dreams, their happy times with Gravel.

Big Sister wax the oldest of the children.  She and her boyfriend lived together in sin for some years.  Then they married for insurance purposes.  Yet she refused to take her husband’s last name.

Her false god was this man in her life.  He was everything to her, and Jesus was nothing to her.  In Dream of Dreams Big Sister was like unto a loose end in Gravel’s prayer life.  Big Sister was a stranger to Lisa, and to the rest of the family.  And Big Sister’s husband did Gravel know even less familiarly.  Big Sister was not angry with the family;  she just didn’t care about them.  In fact, when she did marry her manfriend, Mom was not even invited to the wedding, and she did not find out about the wedding until after.  A justice of the peace married them.  And though this woman were Lisa’s big sister, she was no lady in her eyes.  But she knew that she had a soul that Jesus died for.  And she was family.  And Lisa did desire salvation for her.  And Gravel called her up one day early in her walk with Christ to

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get her to think about eternity.  And Gravel read to Big Sister from the Bible from I Corinthians 6:9-11:  “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Be not deceived:  neither fornicators,…, nor adulterers,…,…shall inherit the kingdom of God.”  What did Big Sister say to this Scripture?  “I’ll be all right, Hon.’”  She was neither angry nor offended nor convicted.  This was Big Sister’s chant.  No.  She would not be all right.  No woman who rejects Christ is all right in God’s eyes.  And shacking up is most wicked.  Add to Big Sister’s damning sins her much drinking.  She was a heavy drinker who drank strong alcohol.  In short, the Bible called her “a drunkard.”  Secretly, Gravel thought of her as “a lush.”  A lush is no lady.  She would not be all right down in Hell.  In Proverbs 23:34-35 it says this about the life of a drunk:  “Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.  They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not:  when shall I awake?  I will seek it yet again.”  Gravel often remembered Big Sister’s bedroom back when all of the family was young.  The two sisters played a game together, where Gravel would put her index finger upon the headboard of Big Sister’s canopy bed right in a certain indentation of the design in the middle, and Big Sister would laugh upon this cue.  It was a child’s game that they made up together.  Also in Big Sister’s bedroom was the entire set of the Golden Book Encyclopedias, a children’s popular encyclopedia.  Those volumes were gone now, but Gravel remembered how eye-catching all the covers were with their aggregate of objects set upon a background.  Gravel used to play a stepping game on the floor with these special books one at a time.

And when Big Sister was in high school, she had a good boyfriend whom all called “Bomber.”  He and she got to wrestling one day, and they accidentally knocked over the Christmas tree.  On one visit he came looking just like Jesus!  And Big Sister, driving his snowmobile one day, accidentally ran right into Mom’s very heavy birdbath out back.  But she was all right and none the worse for it.  When Big Sister graduated from Sunday School at the free church, Pastor Northern gave her and her fellow graduates a hardcover green Living Bible.  The Living Bible was a false Bible.  And Gravel also

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remembered one very funny and clever thing that Big Sister’s husband said one day.  It was Thanksgiving time at Mom and Dad’s house in Allouez.  Mom was cooking the big dinner.  And all

were having a good time.  It was early to mid-afternoon yet at the time.   And the clouds had come.

And Gravel remarked, “It’s getting dark.”  And Big Sister’s husband spoke and said, “It’s getting dark.  That’s a pretty good indication that dinner is late.”  All the family laughed in gaiety upon hearing this.

And despite the truth that those couples who move in together before they get married to see if their marriage would work out, go on to see broken marriages, in the case of Big Sister and her husband, they were still madly in love with each other even unto this day.

Big Brother had as his god the intellectual board game “Scrabble.”  He knew the name of the world champion of Scrabble—Joe Edley.  And he knew the name of America’s champion Scrabble player—Mr. Cappeletti.  Big Brother must get some feelings of intellectual high with Scrabble.  He called those instances when he put down all seven of his tiles from his rack onto the board in one turn, “Bingos.”  He said that those were worth an extra fifty points.  He depended on Bingos in his Scrabble games.  He called his Scrabble Dictionary, “my Bible.”  Blasphemy!  He competed in Scrabble tournaments.  And he was head of the Scrabble club in Oshkosh, himself driving there and back from Wautoma just to play Scrabble.  Being a master craftsman of woodworking, he also made his own Scrabble board and racks and tiles, all of wood.  Big Brother made his living as a self-employed woodworker.  He could look upon a wooden board and correctly identify what kind of tree that wood had come from—Teak, Wenge, Bubinga, Indian Rosewood, Brazilian Rosewood, Pink Ivory, Snake-wood, Walnut, among the woods he worked with.  His name went out among his customers.  Even the former governor of Wisconsin, then retired, hired Big Brother to make things for him.  Big Brother worked hard and charged little.  Though his work was worth much, his prices were low.  All the family thought that he did not charge enough for the labor and the time and the expertise that he put into his work.  He even invented something that he called “the round dovetail.”  And Big Brother also excelled

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at pinball and cryptograms, and those Jumble puzzles.  And now he was all into his new career as a volunteer gravestone repairman.  She saw his calling card with a picture of himself and a fascinating tripod tool.  His name went out now, instead, as the man who fixed up damaged and old tombstones.

He was duly an achiever at all that he set out to do.  He was a master of trades.  He was self-sufficiency personified.  He was a man who persevered and prevailed over all situations in his life good and ill.

He never quit.  He never failed.  He always succeeded.  His motto was, “I’m not done yet.”  Hence Big Brother’s chant—”I’m not done yet.”  But what Big Brother did not know that Gravel did know was that he was not given any trial from God that would surely take away his spirit of self-sufficiency.  God had been easy on Big Brother in his unsaved state.  Big Brother thus bragged with no right to brag.  God could have smitten him with a disease or an injury that would utterly crush him and of which he would never recover from.  What if God took away his ability to walk?  What if God took away his eyesight?  What if God struck him with cancer?  What if God cursed him with daily pain?  What if God took away his hands?  How could Big Brother do his woodworking were any of these things to come upon him?  What if there came the day when Big Brother had to say to Gravel, “I’m done!  I’m all done!”  And about his great talent for woodworking, it is written in I Corinthians 4:7, “For who maketh thee to differ from another?  And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?  Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”  Simply put, it was God—not Big Brother—who had given him the gift of woodworking.  Big Brother went to the same Sunday School class that Big Sister did, and he was two years behind her.  Pastor Northern, the teacher of this teen class, often told his students war stories of his life as a pilot.  It was at this free church where Big Brother became Pastor Northern’s disciple and Sunday School champion.  And upon graduation from this free church’s Sunday School, Big Brother received a brown hardcover New International Version New Testament—another false Bible.  And Big Brother was still just as lost on the last day of Sunday School with Pastor Northern as he was the first day of Sunday School with Pastor Northern at this free church.  Then

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the family moved away.  Gravel found Christ, and she discovered the Word of God and prayer and souls.  And she began to witness to Big Brother.  And in her sharing God’s Word to him, she came to find out about what he believed that needed to change in order to get right with God.  He said to her, “There is no God.”  Whoa!  What a thing to hear from the tongue of Pastor Northern’s champion!  Such a thing as that was clear evidence that Pastor Northern was never called into the ministry by God.  Indeed not long after Big Brother declared to her his atheism, she came upon Psalm 14:1.  She went and wrote this in pencil in her index card notebook of Bible verses to memorize. It read the following:  “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.  They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”  [A parallel verse is Psalm 53:1, wherein it is written, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.  Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity:  there is none that doeth good.”]   What does the Bible call atheists?  Fools!  What does the Bible call agnostics?   Fools!  What does the Bible call Big Brother?  A fool!  This was what Big Brother got out of his years at his false church. What made Big Brother an atheist?  Could it be that his argument was that a loving God would never bring pain and suffering to His world?  If so, then Big Brother had only himself to blame for his own pain and suffering.  For it was sin, originating in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, that brought pain and suffering to this Earth.  It was not God—but mankind—who brought death to this world.  God cannot sin.  God hates sin.  God rightfully judges sin.  And God never sins.  So, it was the sinner Big Brother and all of the rest of the sinners—saved and lost—for whom the curse of sin came down upon the Earth.  Sowing the seeds of sin brings forth a bitter harvest—death.  And death was not in God’s original plan for creation.  And Big Brother was far from exempt in his own sin nature.  And no one makes a sinner sin but himself.  And God never makes people sin.  Even the Devil and his griffins cannot truly make a man to sin—even the demons could only just tempt one to sin.  And one man’s sin always affects somebody else.  Big Brother could not righteously use the loving Lord as a scapegoat in his ignorance.  The just say justly, “There is a God.”  The unjust, like Big

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Brother, cannot.  One time when Gravel witnessed to Big Brother on the phone, he went and said about

the Bible, “Corinthians is unkind to women and animals.”  He must have been talking about the Apostle Paul’s epistles of I Corinthians and II Corinthians.  Here was a man judging the Holy Ghost inspiration of the Scriptures.  It was up to no man to speak against the King James Bible.  God wrote this Book.  Did Big Brother think that he was smarter than the Lord?  There was a good Bible verse that talked about those bold and proud critics of the Holy Bible.  It was Proverbs 21:30, written by wise Solomon, which said, “There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.”  One day, Big Brother breached all impropriety and brazenness with a joke.  Gravel was at her home.  The phone rang.  And she picked it up.  And the voice said, “I got born again.”  This was Big Brother.  And this impossibility in the mind of Gravel made her suspicious and to doubt with great reasoning.  Then Big Brother said, “April fool!”  Tonight was April First.  Big Brother had made an April’s Fool’s joke about getting born again and not meaning it.  He was always one for a good sincere laugh.  But Gravel did not laugh.  Nor was she fooled right from the start.  And with the hard heart of Big Brother’s most foolish levity, Gravel came to the conclusion that it was harder to get a laughing man saved than it was to get a raging man saved.  Big Brother knew not what he had just said and what he had just did.  He was blinded by Satan.  Big Brother had a girlfriend who loved to play Scrabble with him.  She was just as good at it as he was.  And she loved the game just as much as he did.  And they bonded with the chemistry of which can be said, “They finish each other’s sentences.”  But she and he saw politics differently.  He was one of those good Republicans.  She was one of those radical Democrats.  For a while Big Brother was thinking to marry her someday.  But he soon stopped thinking that.  Big Brother had already coined his own proverb about marriage long before he had met this woman:  “If you want to fight, get married.” Big Brother was clever.  And Gravel looked up to him.  She and Big Brother did many things together in their growing-up years.  Whenever the penny carnival came to the park across the bridge, Mom would give them both some money to enjoy themselves there.  And with her money,

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little Gravel went and bought things to eat.  And with his money, he played games and won prizes to take home.  And they walked downtown to the Elisha D. Smith Library, walking on the railroad tracks part of the way.  She still remembered that pile of railroad track spikes off to the side to this day.  That was when Gravel learned how to read.  And she checked out children’s novels written by the children’s writer Carolyn Heywood.  One time she and Big Brother went and played a makeshift little football game with the family football down in the remodeled basement.  And Big Brother’s bedroom was the major part of this nice basement.  He wanted to be comfortable and cool and not hot and sweaty.  That’s why he moved his bedroom down to this basement.  In a later house of Mom and Dad’s his bedroom was in that house’s basement as well.  Ir was at this house where Gravel knew him best in her childhood.  Big Brother was seventeen years old.  His favorite song was a song about the hopelessness and despair among the youth—the popular song, “American Pie” by Don McClean.  Such had to be anyone’s life who lived without Christ.  His second favorite song was “Band on the Run,” by Paul McCartney and Wings.  This was a funner song for Gravel to listen to.  The secondary bathroom to this house was in the basement as well, and that was right next to Big Brother’s bedroom.  In his hobby with photography, he made this bathroom his darkroom.  And the only window he had in his bedroom was a little window high up on the wall that had those very, very thick glass blocks that let in little light from outside.  In his inventiveness, in his seeking of making getting out of bed more easy for himself, Big Brother tied a fishing line from the pull chain of the ceiling light across the ceiling and down the wall and right to the head of his bed.  That way, all he had to do to turn on the light in the morning was to pull down on the fishing line on the wall right by his head from in bed.  Big Brother also had in this room for just a short while, for a ceiling light, that which was called  “a black light bulb.” It actually was dark purple instead; and it got quite hot.  He bought his first motorcycle in his life at this house.  It cost only thirty-five dollars.  And then he bought a more expensive motorcycle later.  And he learned to

drive recklessly down the ditch and back up the ditch in the front yard when Mom was away.  Surely

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making wheelies was his goal.  And to think that the road lay immediately beyond the top of this ditch on this other side.   Big Brother even gave her a ride on his motorcycle down the road to Iron Mountain and back just a short distance away from home.  But he gave her her ride with herself in the front and with himself in the back, his hands on the hand grips from behind her.  But she felt safe with Big Brother.  One day in her adult life, she was riding with Big Brother alone in his car, and he confided to her, “I fell out of love with my girlfriend.”  [This was a previous girlfriend in his life before his current girlfriend.]  And Gravel felt the solemness of this declaration.  This was the girlfriend which bore him Gravel’s niece, Big Brother’s daughter.  Because this girlfriend was like unto a vagrant, Big Brother won total custody of his daughter.  And he raised Niece by himself.  And, as for idiosyncrasies, Big Brother felt wronged by the fact that nobody made a car that could get one hundred miles per gallon of gasoline, and Big Brother was a sleepwalker, and Big Brother made himself a pauper by his inattention to making money, even though he spent no money.

And what about Little Brother, the sibling to whom she was the closest?  His god of his life was gambling.  It had started for him at the local Greyhound park.  His gambling fever soon took him to the Indian gaming casinos.  It came into its own at the Blackjack tables.  And it quickly took him to the stores and the gas stations to buy scratch-off and online lottery tickets.  Little Brother worked hard long hours at his job, and he made much money.  But he also lost much money in his gambling ventures.  Sometimes, after a bad day at work, Little Brother would vent his work stress by blowing one hundred dollars at the casino that evening.  More then once he had to borrow money from Gravel.  And he always paid her back.  And his favorite vacations were always spent at Las Vegas.  And he also found a girlfriend to keep him company at his apartment.   Mom referred to her as “the woman.”  She was fifteen years older than Little Brother.  And he made himself a homewrecker in stealing this woman’s heart.  And they were shamelessly living in cohabitation.  He was in love.  And when Gravel had told him about Jesus and His love, Little Brother said, “I believe in my girlfriend.”  There was Little

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Brother’s chant.  Gravel wished later that she had seized the moment and said, “But your girlfriend never died for your sins.”  But she had not thought about that at the time.  One time on the phone, Gravel asked Little Brother that classic eternal question that had to provoke an answer—the question, “Where are you going when you die?”  And to this, Little Brother at once spoke in certainty and said, “Six feet under.” Alas, he did not know what it meant having a soul.  Having a soul meant that one is going to live as long as God lives—either forever up in Heaven or forever down in Hell.  Little Brother was going to be in either of these two places in his life to come after.  Apparently Little Brother believed in the doctrine of annihilation, which says that when one dies, he simply returns to the ground and is no more.  Such may be true for all animals, but such is true for no human beings.  Mankind was made in the image of God.  And that meant Little Brother, too, unbelief and all.  He would not end up just “six feet under.”  Another time when Gravel shared the Gospel to Little Brother, he vainly went on to brag in mock-humility, telling her, “I am an agnostic, but I am not an atheist.”  What was he saying?

Gravel could tell.  He was saying in philosophy, “I am smart enough to believe that there may be a God, but I am not dumb enough to believe that there is no God.”  Then the one day came upon Little Brother where his gambling got him into trouble with the law.  It was on his first trip to Las Vegas as the problem gambler.  He had it all figured out that he would set aside money for the flight there and back and that he would set aside money for the casinos there.  Well, on the night that he was to board the jet that left Green Bay, he had already gone to the Oneida Casino right across the street from that Austin-Straubel Airport, and there at that local casino, he lost all of his money in a gambling frenzy.

He boarded the plane that took him to Las Vegas.  And, when he got there, of course, he had no money with which to gamble.  So what did he do?   He purposefully let himself write two bad five-hundred-dollar checks for his dream gambling vacation there.  And he got caught.  And the law was after him.

And when he got back to town, he went right to Gravel and told her what he had done.  He confessed the fact that there was indeed a Devil.  And he appealed to her mercy.  And he asked her if he could

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borrow from her one thousand dollars.  And he said that he was going to consult with a professional debt manager (which he went on to do.)  She promised him the loan only on one condition—that he go to Marinette County Baptist Church with her on the next Sunday Morning Worship.  He agreed to do that.  She then tried to lead him on a path toward salvation that night.  She began to preach the Roman’s Road.  But he interrupted her with his true tale of what happened to him in Las Vegas.  And she could not get far.  Here on her table where she read her Bible daily, were five whole series of loose index cards full of Bible verses that she had memorized.  These piles of index cards were on this Bible study table in this living room of hers, because now she was in a big project for her pleasure of memorizing them all over again.  This was a regular part of her Bible study life.  But she thought to herself at the time, “All of this Bible knowledge I have in all of these index cards, and yet it is not enough wisdom to convince Little Brother of his need for Jesus.”  Her only hope had to be Pastor’s sermon that Little Brother would hear at church with her this coming Sunday.  Herself meaning business with God for the soul of Little Brother, Gravel went and did something scriptural that she never did before and which she never did after.  She fasted.  For the good of his soul, Gravel fasted for twenty-four hours.  When she went to bed that night, she was hungry.  But by the time the next day came, she felt none the worse for hunger all the next day until the twenty-four hours were up.  Then she ordered a delivery from her favorite restaurant—Kentucky Fried Chicken—and she filled up with her favorite fried chicken in the world until once again quite full.  Then the day came for Little Brother to come to church.  And he came just as he said he would.  Left behind at her apartment was her check for one thousand dollars that she would give him upon their coming back to her place.  And Pastor preached mightily.  And Little Brother heard the Word of God.  And Pastor, knowing Little Brother being a first-time visitor, and how first-time visitors don’t usually come back for a second time, went ahead to change his planned message to an impromptu salvation message just for Little Brother.  The wise Pastor Preamble

made sure that Gravel’s little brother heard the simple Gospel message—that Jesus died for our sins

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and arose from the grave on the third day.  Pastor made sure to preach the simple plan of salvation.  And Pastor made sure to keep salvation as easy as it is to understand and to receive.  Little Brother talked to Gravel with idle comments.  Pastor did not allow talking during his message, but Pastor made an exception to Little Brother, because this was his first time here.  In Gravel’s heart, she deemed today’s service and sermon to “be the most important hour of Little Brother’s life, whether he knew it to be or not.”  And at the end of the message, Pastor from the pulpit narrated the sinner’s prayer for anyone in this auditorium to say silently to himself, line-by-line, if he were not sure of going to Heaven.  This was good Pastor’s good way with first-time visitors.  Ostensibly it was for any in this gathering, but Gravel knew that specifically it was for Little Brother.  Were Little Brother to say this prayer to himself right now at church, he would become saved just like Gravel.  Little Brother did not pray the prayer for himself.  And he left church, unconvinced and unconvicted and unconverted.  When they came back to Gravel’s place, she gave him the check for one thousand dollars, and he thanked her, and he went back home, with a plan ahead of him to pay back his gambling debt to the authorities.  And, in time, he was cleared of his debt.  And he did not have to go to jail.  And life continued for him right where it had left off.  And he still had not gotten saved.  And his gambling continued.  And Gravel had a verse about his gambling that she went on to memorize:  “As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.”  Jeremiah 17:11,  There was a song that Gravel sang to herself in intercession for Little Brother’s soul.  To her for Little Brother, it was a song of a wanderer in life going nowhere.  She fell in love with this song when she heard it in a Twilight Zone episode in a rerun.  The episode was called “The Wandering Man.”  And the song was called “Come Wander With Me.”  The main character was a professional singer named Floyd Burney, and the actor who played him was Gary Crosby.  And it was in the days of black and white TV.  It was a mystifying song, a captivating song, a gripping song.  And it was a happy folk song.  This song made Gravel pray for Little Brother with a

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a tragic theme as follows:  He is wandering about in life as a lost person wanders about in life.  He does one thing he enjoys or does not enjoy, and then he goes on to do the next thing he enjoys or does not enjoy.  He flits about day-by-day searching for fun things to do.  He is not going forward in life day-after-day as a Christian does.  He does not read his Bible or pray or go to church, all of which earn eternal rewards in Heaven for the believer.  Nothing he does as the lost person earns him any eternal rewards in Heaven.  Nay, he wanders about upon the broad road to destruction, seeking and finding vanity in this life.  And he never finds what he is looking for.  And then, at the end of his life, he falls off of the end of this broad way and down into the fires of Hell.  Such is the fate of a wandering man such as Little Brother.  This was the allegory that Gravel sang to the melody of this folk song.  It was her dear prayer for the soul of Little Brother.  How well she remembered that day earlier in her life how she stood before her window in her dark bedroom of night and felt the nice cool summer wind blowing upon her through the screen and refreshing her with the feel of Little Brother’s salvation, pretending that make-believe come true.  Gravel remembered many great times that she had with Little Brother.  In their childhood years, when he was a little boy, he loved to be thrown down upon his bed by Gravel, and bounce back up off of the mattress, and get pushed back down upon the bed again.  This was one of their favorite games they played as children.   And they had coasting contests, where they would coast on their bicycles down the hill of road from next door in the countryside, and the one who coasted farther without pedaling won the contest.  And they played a kind of “hockey” on the pool table with pool balls and plastic bowling pins and the back cushion as goals.  And they played a type of “soccer” on the kitchen table with Mom’s empty cigarette plastic liner as the ball, their blown breaths as their feet, and the edges of the table as the goals.  Gravel also liked to make somersaults and logrolling adventures and other rolling games with Little Brother for each to get delightfully dizzy in their heads.  Kids liked to get dizzy.  Little boys liked to get dizzy.  Little girls liked to get dizzy.  And in their grown-up years, Little Brother’s girlfriend introduced fresh-brewed coffee into Gravel’s life.  She

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made Gravel hazelnut coffee, brewed through an automatic drip coffeemaker.  All of her young adult life, Gravel had drunk instant coffee and enjoyed it much.  But this brewed coffee was even better.  And Gravel’s coffee drinking life was now improved, thanks to Little Brother’s girlfriend.  And Gravel remembered one special night at the apartment of Little Brother and his girlfriend where she had seen something almost as enthralling as her own black and yellow cheerleader uniform.  It was prom gowns!  Oh how spellbound she was when Little Brother’s woman-friend’s daughter and a friend of the daughter came home in their prom dresses.   One was red.  One was blue.  How much she wanted to wear something like those.  So shiny.  So bright.  So elegant.  She had forgotten that day of magic so long ago.  And she was content with her most beloved cheerleader uniform.  That day was around 1989 or 1990, when prom gowns were made of acetate—that sleek prom dress fabric of those days.   She pined for that style of the good old days once in a while here later in life.

Lastly comes Niece, Big Brother’s daughter, of whom Gravel was closer to than to other relatives of her extended family.  Her false idol was a cartoon character of her own making, whom she called, “Reiner.”  Reiner was a guy creature with powers and with personality.  She, being an art student, had drawn many cartoons of Reiner, starting with the series called, “Nameless Is His Name.”

She had Reiner to say in her advent to her cartoon hobby, “Nameless is my name.”  This became, to Gravel, Niece’s chant.  And Niece also drew other made up comic characters as well—Arlix, Wilts, Evil Eagle, Aquarius,  Firestorm,  Reiner’s sister, a force called “the Spark of Life,” a world called “dimension prime,” a world called “dimension delta.”  Gravel had wished that Niece draw unicorns and griffins instead of her creatures who had powers.  But Niece drew her own drawings, and she liked to have it so.  Later on, Niece learned how to put her cartoons onto internet, the video as flat pages on the monitor without motion, and the audio being her own voice to the captions.  Gravel looked up some of these on her computer, and she saw cartoon pages of much color and detail.  If only Niece would draw prom girls and brunette cheerleaders, thought the romantic Gravel.  Or maybe sketches of handsome

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princes and knights in shining armor—like Flanders was to Gravel.  Often Gravel said to God in private prayer, “My niece’s gift of art is wasted with her cartoons.”  And whenever Gravel called up Niece on the telephone, before too long, Niece would go on to explain fascinating stories of her world of cartoons, and Gravel would listen attentively for the whole time.   Niece was most creative and most prolific with Reiner and all of her cartoons.  And she loved to tell Gravel her tales, and Gravel loved to hear her tell her tales.  And Niece would hear Gravel tell her about her own works from her gift from God—her writing hobby with stories about the Saviour and about salvation.  And Niece always listened when she witnessed to her.  Whenever Big Brother’s daughter came over, she would always grab a hold of Aunt Gravel’s stuffed lion and “attack” her with this stuffed lion in their game together with her.  Gravel would pretend to be mauled by this stuffed lion and cry out and fall upon her bottom.  And Niece and Aunt Lisa always enjoyed their game.  This niece, as it turned out, was to be the only grandchild of Gravel’s Mom and Dad.  And Mom loved Niece as a grandma just as much as she had loved Gravel and her siblings as a mom.  And Dad enjoyed being a grandpa to Niece.  Big Brother was a dad now.  Big sister and Gravel were aunts.  And Little Brother was an uncle.  As it says in Ecclesiastes 1:4, written by wise Solomon, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh:  but the earth abideth forever.”  And Gravel and her sister and brothers often wondered together if the family name would not continue onto their next generation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER VIII

The reader has read one chapter about Gravel’s mom of her Dream of Dreams and one chapter about Gravel’s dad of her Dream of Dreams and one chapter about all the rest of Gravel’s family individually of her Dream of Dreams.  This chapter will be about Gravel’s family collectively—in groups and in whole—of her Dream of Dreams.

In her first Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Dad’s house as a born-again believer, she asked if she could do the prayer for the family before the meal.  And Mom said, “Yes.”  Already Lisa knew much Scripture.  And when they all sat down for dinner, Gravel opened up her Bible and read a most lengthy passage of verses to them in preaching as they sat and listened.  It was the passage Luke 16:19-31, which said the following:  “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:  And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table:  moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.  And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and

was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom:  the rich man also died, and was buried;  And in

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hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.  But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things:  but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.  And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed:  so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.  Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:  For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.  Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.  And he said, Nay, father Abraham:  but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.  And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”  This was the classic parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  Then in concluding this prayer at the table for her family, she warned her lost family of going to Hell were they not to get born again.  Being new in Christ, her first such attempts at converting her loved ones to Christ were still raw and unsophisticated and blunt.  Herself abundantly frank and ungentle at witnessing, her family, nonetheless, could see that Gravel was different now that she was a Christian.  And they could she that she cared for them.  And they bore no grudges against her.   And the family eagerly went ahead and ate the Thanksgiving dinner that Mom made.

Later, 9-1-1 happened to the United States.  And all of the country saw the live video of the second jet plane crashing into the second World Trade Tower.  And Lisa felt that judgment day from God may be coming to her country.  Maybe her family might think the same thing.  She must tell them about the rapture of the believers.  And she must tell them about how the unbelievers would be left behind to face Earth’s darkest hour of tribulation.  And she wrote letters to all of her family wherever they now lived and wrote that the Lord was coming soon.  In each letter she shared the two rapture

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passages that she knew best.  One was I Corinthians 15:51-53, which said, “Behold, I shew you a mystery;  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:  for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

And the other was I Thessalonians 4:16-18, which said, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:  and the dead in Christ shall rise first;  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:  and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”  Now was the time to warn her family.  The rapture was imminent.  She would be snatched up to Heaven without dying—she and all other living Christians.  And the lost—her unsaved loved ones, to whom she wrote these letters–would be left behind.   And the left behind would have to face the tribulation—a global calamity worse even than the global catastrophe of the great flood.  She urged all her family to seek Christ.  She wept some when she wrote Mom’s letter.  And she wrote, “I love you,” when she wrote Dad’s letter.

In her fantasy world of allegories, Gravel dreamed up a land where she led Mom and Dad to salvation both at once.  She called it, “Beulah Land.”  In her happy life in Pembine, Mom used to go to the dock that stretched forth into their Young’s Lake and feed the Bluegills.  Mom said later that technically this dock was not on their property, but rather on the property of the Boy Scout’s Camp.  Either way, it was very near to their land, and quite next door all in the open fields.  In her daydreams and her prayers, this dock became Gravel’s “Beulah Land.”  At Beulah Land, Lisa was sitting upon this dock, her back to the shore and her face toward the lake.  And here, Mom and Dad were sitting upon this dock before her, their back to the lake and their face toward the shore.  Mom and Dad were sitting side-by-side at the far edge of this dock.  Mom was to Lisa’s left.  Dad was to Lisa’s right.  Lisa had her King James Bible open.  She was preaching the good news of the Gospel to them.  And they were

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listening.  And, lo, she led them both through the sinners’ prayer both at once!  In her real prayer life, she had an official hymn for this Beulah Land—it was the melody to the hymn, “I Wonder As I Wander.”  What a dream place for her two most important souls to get saved!

Lisa also had a dream place where she could lead her two brothers to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  Big Brother was five years older than she.  Little Brother was five years younger than she.  That made her like the middle kid of the family.  [Big Sister was seven years older than she].  This place was her parents’ house at Aurora way up north.  And this home in Aurora, like the home in Pembine, was a place of the past for the family, and gave happy memories for Gravel of her childhood.  In Aurora, there was a steep and spacious ridge that lay behind the backyard.  This was their ridge.  And in the back of this ridge, Dad set about to build Mom a little cabin that looked out onto the neighbor farmer’s vast fields and wide-open countryside beyond their property behind.  Dad began by digging in trenches and putting in boards in these trenches.  And in this work in progress, little Lisa played her own little game with sticks.  She took two sticks that were lying around, and she first struck the one stick in her hand with the other stick in her other hand, and she second struck the other stick in her other hand with the one stick in her one hand.  She enjoyed batting sticks together until they both broke.  And one of the places that she loved to play this game the most was right here at the far end of the ridge by the farmer’s fence right where Dad laid the groundwork for Mom’s little cabin.  Well, something came up, and Dad could no longer continue his work on Mom’s cabin.  And the cabin never got finished.  But little Gravel liked standing between these four trenches and their boards.  And in her Christian life later, she declared in prayer that that little square of the ridge of long ago would make a perfect place for her to lead Big Brother and Little Brother to Christ both at the same time.  This became her allegory of “The Land of Two Brothers.”

In another reflection, one not at all hopeful, Gravel thought upon a personal understanding of those demonic locusts that would come upon those left behind in the tribulation.  These locusts were

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what the fifth trumpet judgment were all about in the tribulation.  In these end times of this earth that would come upon the world after the rapture, God would curse mankind with seven seal judgments and with seven trumpet judgments and with seven vial judgments.  Well, the fifth trumpet judgment was utmost torment.  Demon locusts would come up out of the bottomless pit and attack the unsaved people in the world.  And they bit people with the sting of a scorpion.  In Revelation 9:6, it is written about the agony from a bite from these locust demons, “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death will flee from them.”  And these dread demon locusts traveled in swarms.  What did these sound like?  The Bible tells in Revelation 9:9, “…; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.”  Well in this scary reflection in prayer for her family’s soul, Gravel envisioned the family out back in their yard in the city of Allouez.  Dad and the others hear the sounds of the locusts coming.  And Dad says, “Get inside!”  And the family quickly runs for safety inside the house and shut up all the doors.

In another sad prayer theme for her family’s salvation, Gravel thought about her family, again in Allouez on that Mission Road.  Here the men were playing their family game of twenty-one in the driveway with the basketball. And Mom is washing and drying the dishes in the kitchen after the big meal. It is the time of the tribulation.  Gravel had been raptured up, gloriously coming Home to Jesus in the joys of Heaven.  The whole rest of her family had been left behind.  And Mom misses her daughter Lisa with grief.  She does not know what had become of her.  She wishes that she were still around.  And Mom, doing the dishes, cries with grief over the daughter she loved.

These reflections and prayers, happy and unhappy, were all about Gravel’s loved ones.  And they came from the heart of a young woman who knew her Bible and who knew the prophecy taught in the book of Revelation and who had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world.

And she knew that regarding her intercessions for her family’s salvation, that she needed what the Good Book called “faith as a grain of mustard seed.”

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What is a mustard seed?  Matthew 13:31 says this about a mustard seed:  “Which indeed is the least of all seeds:  but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

In Matthew 17:20 this faith is thus proclaimed, “…:  for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Further it is written about this faith in Mark 11:22-24, “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

Again God’s Word declares of this faith in Luke 17:6 thus:  “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

Through God one can make a mountain to move, can throw a mountain into the sea, can force a tree out of the ground.  Through God could not Gravel convince her loved ones of Jesus’s love and of His free gift of everlasting life?  Dream of Dreams was possible with Jesus.  And she believed this with her faith as a grain of mustard seed.

She was not without her frustrations with her family in her Dream of Dreams life dream over the years.  She, being a believer, knew that all of these things she knew personally about Christ made a lot of sense.  And, of course, her family, being unbelievers, saw these same eternal truths of the Saviour as irrelevant, non sequitur, nonsensical.   She knew how I Corinthians 1:18 said, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”  She knew how I Corinthians 2:14 said, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:

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for they are foolishness unto him:  neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

And she knew how II Corinthians 4:4 said, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”  And she knew how II Corinthians 11:3 went thus:  “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”  These four Bible verses in Paul’s epistles to the church in Corinth said much.  And Gravel sighed often and prayed, “Lord, that Devil does good work.  And his griffins do good work.  Alas!”

Gravel’s frustrations over her loved ones’ rejection of the Saviour of the world also was manifested in two verses of the book of the gospel of John.  These two Scripture verses clearly said that believers understand the Word of God and unbelievers cannot understand the Word of God.  In John 8:43 Jesus said, “Why do ye not understand my speech?  Even because ye cannot hear my word.”  How desperately—and maybe vengefully—did Gravel want to grab her loved ones by their shoulders and to shake them and to say to them, “Don’t you know?   Don’t you know?”  In John 8:47 in a parallel verse this same Jesus said, “He that is of God heareth God’s words:  ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.”  Hear again, Gravel wanted to shake her family members up, a little in love and a little in revenge, and to say to them point-blank, “Can’t you tell?  Can’t you tell?”  About their lives lived without the Lord Jesus and the eternal destiny they all had in Hell because of this, Gravel wanted to yell at them all every one about their lives, “What’s wrong with this picture?  What’s wrong with this picture?”

And Lisa had a most personal and private pair of proverbs that she coined that symbolized her desperate hopes for Dream of Dreams to come true.  The first one said, “Only believe; only care.”  The second one said, “Only care; only believe.”

This was the sum, the summary, the symbol, the gist, and the tale of the Dream of Dreams.

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Lisa “Gravel” Nickels remembered all of the good times she had with her family as a family over all her years both at home and after leaving home.  Her first four months of life she spent in Appleton in the trailer.  She, of course, could not remember this.  Then her family moved to their first house—in the city of Menasha.  She lived there for over ten years.  Then they moved to Pembine on Young’s Lake.  She lived there for almost a year.  Then they moved to Aurora way up north.  She lived there for four years.  Then they moved down to Kunesh.  She lived there for six years.  Then they moved to the village of Allouez.  She lived there for four years.  Then she moved out to live with her new husband Flanders in their place here in the sand dunes of Beaver.  And her parents went on to continue living together in Allouez.  And when her parents divorced, Mom moved to an apartment in Oshkosh, and Dad moved to a trailer between Neenah and Menasha.

Of her many good times of diversions with her family, Gravel most fondly reminisced upon Twenty-One.  Dad and Big Brother and herself and Little Brother and Niece, later on, all played Twenty-One together throughout several homes.  Looking back, Gravel often said to God, “Funny how we never once thought about playing basketball.”   And this made sense to her.  And it was just the way it ought to be.   The gang loved Twenty-One, and Twenty-One the gang played.  It all started at Pembine between Dad and Big Brother.  They first began to play Twenty-One in the big yellow barn. It went on to become a legacy of the family.  That basketball hoop was high—very likely higher than a regulation height.  Gravel was too young and too little to throw the ball up into the basket, even when standing right before it.  There were circles of holes in the roof of this big barn.  And circles of yellow sunlight poured through the ceiling and lit up the barren floor of this barn here and there.  Then the family moved to Aurora.  And Dad and Big Brother continued Twenty-One between each other seamlessly.  Here the backboard was in a more conventional place—upon the front of the garage high up.  This was a more regulation height now.  And little Lisa could now throw the basketball up high enough as she stood right in front of it, and get it through the hoop.  And one day, Big Brother

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threw one of those long shots, worth many points, and the basketball hit the garage window to the left of the hoop, and the glass window bowed in and bowed back out; but the window did not break.  [As an aside, one day, Dad attempted to drop-kick his favorite football toward the basketball hoop from all the way back at the start of the driveway.  It was a long driveway.  And the football traveled the whole distance, hit the back of the backboard in the middle on its side just above the rim, but then bounced off the backboard away from the rim.  It was close, though!   Dad told this story for years afterward.]  Then the family moved to Kunesh, and their game continued.  Big Brother was moved out by now.  And now it was Dad and Gravel and Little Brother who played Twenty-One.  This basketball net was far shorter than regulation height.  It surely was no higher than six feet above the ground.  It was mounted upon the slanted roof of the little red barn, a type of large shed.  In their games together here, between Dad and Gravel, often times Dad would win with three “three’s” to Gravel’s two “fours.” in their pursuit to reach twenty-one points first.  [This was the Twenty-One site where Little Brother had played his trick with the little tree and kept Dad’s ball from going into the basket on that one shot.]  There in Kunesh, there were seven levels of shots—from the one shot to the seven shot.  And Gravel had delineated each shot by a fancy table leg from some abandoned tables left in the little barn from the previous residents. These seven old table legs lay upon the grass as markers alongside of which to shoot.  Then the family moved back to the city–now in Allouez.  And Dad put up the basketball hoop and backboard once again on the front of the garage and at regulation height now once again.  Here the whole group played Twenty-One together.  Big Brother and Niece and Little Brother and Gravel visited Mom and Dad here, and Dad and the gang played the family game, now with many players.  And more than once, the garage door down halfway, a little window of the garage door shattered when the basketball came down and hit the window.  And Dad, with his know-how, would go ahead some days later and replace the window.  And they could play again.  For markers, here with seven levels of shots, also, Dad spray-painted black lines upon the concrete driveway.  And lots of times, for the short “two-shot,” Gravel sat

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upon the driveway and looked up and shot.  This seemed for her her most likely way of making this particular shot.  Other times with the two-shot, Gravel would declare her shot, saying, “Dad’s style.”   And, standing, she would hold the basketball in both hands, one in front and one in back, and throw the basketball up with the palm of her back hand.  She felt that this would give the throw the gentle touch it needed for this short distance.  Big Brother always made sure that each player shoot the one-shot where he rebounded the two-shot.  But Gravel wanted the one-shot to have its own designated spray-paint line for all.  Big Brother had his way, though.  And Gravel did not mind.  [And here the family also played “Horse” and “Pig.”  In one such game, Niece wrapped up the basketball in a blanket and shot and made it.   Needless to say, the player after her missed this same shot with the same blanket wrapped around it and had to get a letter added to his tally.]  Then the divorce happened, and Mom and Dad sold the house and the land and parted their ways.  Yet Twenty-One continued.  Now it took place at a park down the road from Dad’s trailer park.  And the gang was always Dad and Gravel and Big Brother and Little Brother.  Dad’s attached storage area next to his trailer had a slew of different basketballs.  Dad had his special basketball of this collection for his games.  Big Brother had his special basketball among this aggregate for his games.  Little Brother also had his favorite basketball of this bunch.  And Gravel had her basketball from this repository that was best for her.  And in this way the four went to the park in Dad’s car to play their Twenty-One and their Horse and their Pig.   In one game of Horse, Gravel stepped to the edge of the parking lot, directly to the one side of the net and far away from the net, and made a sporting utterance, saying, “From outside of the park.”  Being at a bad angle, she, of course went ahead and missed it.  Big Brother’s turn was next.  Because Gravel had missed her shot, Big Brother did not have to shoot and make her same shot.  But he thought that he’d try it anyway, just for the fun of it.  He put himself where Gravel had just been, and he in the spirit of mirth went on to repeat in mimic, “From outside of the park.”  He shot.  And he missed.  And the game went on in its merry way.

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The following paragraph is events of Lisa’s life at Menasha with her loved ones:  Most memorable of all came her family’s first night in the cabin up north, seventy miles from home.  [That cabin was just a couple of miles from her home at the sand dunes here in Beaver years later].  It was a stormy summer night of lightning and thunder and rain.  They were in their brand new cabin for their first night together.  They had not yet gotten any kerosene lanterns yet.  And it was pitch dark in here.  Dad was away for this while, gone to town to get something they needed.  And Mom was alone with her four little children.  And Mom told a scary story there in the dark cabin in the thunderstorm:   “A woman was alone in the house in the dark of night, and she heard a voice say to her from outside, ‘I am at your house door, and I’m coming to get you.’   She waited, afraid.  Then she heard that voice say to her from inside, ‘I am in your house, and I’m coming to get you.’  She waited, more afraid.  Then she heard that voice, closer now, say to her, ‘I’m at the bottom of the stairs, and I’m coming to get you.’

She waited, very afraid.  Then she heard that voice now closer say to her, ‘I’m at the top of the stairs, and I’m coming to get you.’  She waited in great fear.  Then that voice said to her right outside her bedroom door, say to her, ‘I’m on the other side of your bedroom door, and I’m coming to get you.’

Now she was really afraid.  Then the voice called from within the bedroom, saying to her, ‘I’m inside your room, and I’m coming to get you.’  She did not know what to do.  Then the voice called out, ‘I got you!’”  And as soon as Mom the narrator said this, “I got you,” she grabbed a hold of Gravel by her arm, thereby “getting her.”  Gravel gave a jump where she sat.  But so, too, did all of the children.  And they all five loved the telling of this story.  Then Dad came back, and everybody felt safer in this scary storm with Dad back.  At another time in her childhood in Menasha, she experienced the longest car ride she ever traveled on with the family.  It was from Menasha to Munising and back in one day.  Menasha was in the valley by Appleton and right about where the Fox River flowed out of Lake Winnebago.  And Munising was in Upper Michigan way up north and way out east.  Gravel never did know what they had gone up there for.  All she knew was that an unexpected snowstorm came upon

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them when they got there.  And they decided right then to go back home that same day.  She also remembered how Big Sister used to make pudding for her at the stove in the kitchen.  And she remembered how Mom cut Gravel’s bread and gravy into nice squares.  One time Big Sister cut Gravel’s bread and gravy for her, but she cut it into diamond-shapes of all things;  Gravel did not want to eat that.  And when the family had frozen pizza for dinner, the family did not use a pizza slicer; instead they used a pair of scissors to cut the pizza into pieces.  One day Mom and Dad left the house, leaving Big Sister in charge as babysitter to the younger kids.  Well, little Lisa wanted some graham crackers.  But what if Big Sister said, “No?”  She and Big Brother both wanted graham crackers.  And Gravel played the sneak.  So she wrapped her blanket around herself, came down from upstairs where the bedrooms were, smuggled a box of graham crackers from the kitchen, hid it in her blanket against herself, and sneaked back up the stairs to Big Brother’s bedroom.  And they both enjoyed graham crackers together without Big Sister knowing.  [That was the time in Menasha before Big Brother had his bedroom in the basement].  And the stores that Mom and Dad took little Lisa to when they went shopping.  How boring it was to go to W. T. Grant’s at Valley Fair with Mom.  How boring it was to go to the lumber shop with Dad.  And what things happened for Gravel on the carpeted staircase between the downstairs and the upstairs, both good and not good.  For good was that stone game that Mom played with Gravel and her siblings.  Mom would hold up two clenched hands.  One hand held a stone.  The other hand did not hold a stone.  The kids had to guess which hand held the stone.  If they guessed correctly they could climb up one step of the staircase.  If they guessed incorrectly they had to stay at the step that they were already at.  The first kid who got to the top of the steps won the game.  For bad upon these carpeted steps was that unfortunate accident that Dad had with little Gravel.  It was a crazy and unexpected surprise, but Gravel was not the worse for it in the end.  Dad was playing with his little girl at the top of the steps, swinging her around to her giggles and delight.  Then he thrust her forward in both of his arms, making sure to hold on to her tight in his hands.  Unfortunately, her weight outward

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impelled his little man’s form forward from the top of these stairs.  And father and daughter tumbled down the stairs together.  She grabbed a hold of the wooden railing, and she was frightened, and she cried. But Gravel was just fine. Looking back at that later, the older Gravel felt more bad for Dad than she had for herself. Dad was very sorrowful for this accident for Gravel’s sake.  And just think of the grudge that Mom as Lisa’s mother felt against Dad.  And Gravel also remembered that car ride when

Dad took her and Little Brother to Dog and Suds.  Dog and Suds was a well-known restaurant at the time—maybe even a chain.  Looking back years later, long after this restaurant closed, Gravel pondered if it were a hot-dog-and-root-beer restaurant.  She could not remember. But it was sweet nostalgia for her.

This following paragraph is events of Lisa’s life with her family in Pembine:   She remembered how she found a steel barrel at the edge of their Young’s Lake right up by the shore.  It was black with some yellow, and it was empty.  She fished it out of the lake, and brought it to land, and began her pastime of walking on the barrel, not without her falls, of course.  She also took a big frog that was in the field and for some reason went ahead to carry it to the lake, where she thought that it preferred to be.  She did the same thing with a turtle later on.  And on one hot school day, when the four kids got off of the school bus, they at once ran up to the lake and jumped right into the lake in all of their clothes.  It was at Pembine where Gravel heard her first sonic boom from a jet flying by.  She was in the little yellow barn, and suddenly she heard a loud explosion from above.  She was scared.  Her thoughts were, “We’re being bombed!”  And she ran to Mom at the house not far away.  And she found out that that explosion was what was called a “sonic boom” and that it was not a bombing raid, and that everything was all right.  Likewise did the girl Lisa also discover static electricity with a fright and a running to Mom.  It was in her bedroom upstairs in a floor that had heat, but no insulation.  And she saw little sparks come up within her sheets not far from her head when she moved her hands.  Once again Mom comforted her, telling her what it was and that it was not something to fear.  And Gravel learned from

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Mom something about life once again here.  It was here where Little Brother got lost in the woods in

the cold and the snow of winter.  Mom had always told him, “Don’t go into the woods.”  Well he and the family dog went into the woods together.  The family dog found his way back home.  Little Brother was not with the family dog, though.  And Mom had great fear for her little boy.  Well Little Brother was found walking into the yard of a distant neighbor not too long later.  He was found; he was okay; he came back home safe and sound.

The following paragraph is events in Gravel’s life with her family in Aurora:  First Big Sister moved out on her own.  Then, two years later, Big Brother moved out on his own.  It was in the basement in front of the spare TV where the family saw history in the making when President Nixon gave his resignation speech to the American people.  This TV was a high-quality Curtis Mathes TV with a record player and a radio and sturdy legs and even knobs for “bass” and “treble.”  Of course, TV’s at this time also had knobs for “vertical” and “horizontal” and two channel knobs that were to be turned with the sound of clicking—one for “VHF” and one for “UHF.”  It was a black-and-white TV.  And it turned “on” and “off” with the turning of a knob.  Gravel’s happiest years of her childhood were spent here at Aurora.  She played out all manner of sundry and diverse fantasies with herself—make-believe baseball games with a plastic bat and plastic ball in the front yard, make-believe football games with Dad’s favorite football out back in the empty garden after the vegetables were harvested, and make-believe other sporting events that she made up with her imagination.  She started batting sticks against sticks and tall weeds against tall weeds.  And she play-acted all sorts of creative scenes all by herself.  This was her fun in life.  And after a few years of these fantasies she came to write a book about them as a fantasy history book that she called, The Ages.  This new thing in her life started here in Aurora for her in fifth grade.  And these play-acting games took place both outside and inside.  And they continued on into her life in Kunesh, her next home with Mom and Dad.  Gravel delighted in this spontaneous play-acting for nine years.  Then the girl became a woman. And her unique games ended.

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And her handwritten novel was forgotten.  Lisa had grown up.  Mom read her book, and Mom thought the book should be called, “The Sticks.”  For “sticks that lived,” were a major part of her book.  Lisa was a happy older girl.  And she became a happy younger woman.

The following paragraph is the events of Gravel’s life with her dear family in Kunesh:  One day of great mischief, when Mom and Dad were away and Gravel and Little Brother were left alone unsupervised, they decided to go ahead and put all of the mattresses of the second floor upon Little Brother’s one bed.  This upstairs in Kunesh had Gravel’s bedroom with her bed and Little Brother’s bedroom with his bed and the spare bedroom with two beds.  And the two worked together, and put a pile of mattresses on Little Brother’s bed that nearly reached the ceiling.  And when Mom and Dad got home, and Mom found out what they did, Mom was enraged.  And Gravel and Little Brother got in trouble with Mom real bad.  And they never did this prank again since.  Here in the countryside of Kunesh, the older teenager Gravel continued her little games of her sticks right where she had left off from Aurora.  But she was more self-conscious of them now, and she did not do these games where everyone could see her.  And in twelfth grade in her play-acting, she invented a man she named, “Tec.” a character made up by an author, who himself was a character in her book.  That is, she wrote about a character who was made up by another character, a writer.  This was like fiction within fiction, or fantasy within fantasy.  And she went on herself to enact and to write up stories about this Tec, all done in the privacy of her bedroom here in Kunesh.  After Tec came and went in her impromptu skits, one year later,  all of these games ended, here in Kunesh, herself at age nineteen.  And she had now become an adult.

This following paragraph is the events of Lisa’s life with Mom and Dad and herself and Little Brother at Allouez, life now in the city and no longer in the country:  On one of those days where Big Brother came to visit, the family was again gathered around the table to play cards.  And clever wit was not long in coming.  And talk about currency began to take place which had nothing to do with the card

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game.  Big Brother said facetiously, “Does anyone have change for my seven?” (As in a seven-dollar bill)   And Dad said, “No, but I’ve got a three and a four.”  (as in a three-dollar bill and a four-dollar bill.)   Another time, Big Brother called from his place in Wautoma, and Gravel picked up the phone, and Big Brother told her, “I’ll be home.”  And Gravel told Mom and Dad that Big Brother was coming for a visit.  The family waited and waited, and Big Brother did not come.  Then the family found out the error of Gravel’s ways.  When Big Brother said that he would be home, he meant his home, not Mom and Dad’s home.  Big Brother thought that they were coming to his place,   And they thought that Big Brother was coming to their place.  Gravel had misunderstood and this little mix-up resulted. But none was upset with Lisa, and all got a laugh out of it.  And here, back in the city, the heritage of the restaurant Old Country Buffet began for the family.  This was a restaurant in west Green Bay at Green Bay Plaza on West Mason Street.  It became officially “Gravel’s favorite restaurant.”  The manager was a very large man who worked very hard for his very good restaurant,  And his picture was on the wall with the words, “Hello and welcome” to his customers.  The hallmark of Old Country Buffet for Lisa was their bread pudding and their hot fudge pudding cake.  She also had chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce on top of it.  She loved this buffet’s chicken even more than she loved the chicken at Kentucky Fried Chicken, her old favorite restaurant.  She also loved the hot dog pieces in red sauce and the omelets and the grilled cheese and the chicken-breaded patty (her favorite meat) and the meatloaf and the orange juice and the chocolate milk and everything else they served.  And she also enjoyed the sauerkraut and polish sausage that they served together—and Old Country Buffet made even polish sausage like gold for her, despite her never having taken to polish sausage before.  A few times Lisa went here just to fill up on their salad bar.  She liked their salad.  And she always ate at Old Country Buffet so big a meal that her belly hurt afterward.  Dinner Bell Buffet at East Town Mall never

made it for Gravel and the family.  But Old Country Buffet “ruled” for years afterward. It was from this house at Allouez when Gravel moved out to live on her own in her own apartment in De Pere.  Later

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she married Flanders and moved in with him here at the sand dunes.  And, in like, a few years later in Allouez, Little Brother also moved out and began his life on his own.  Mom and Dad then had an empty nest.  And the divorce came then, and they sold the house, and they went their separate ways—Mom to an apartment in Oshkosh; Dad to his trailer in the township of Menasha.  And the family’s good times together continued on after the divorce.  But Mom and Dad were no longer together on the same family get-togethers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER IX

Flanders and Lisa Nickels were on a date at their grove of lemon trees and lime trees out in the side yard of the countryside here in Beaver.  She had told him all about her Dream of Dreams.  He knew all about the history of these past four chapters of this book.  In fact, only she and God knew more about her Dream of Dreams than Flanders did from her much sharing of it and from his much avid listening to it.  She picked a lemon from a branch above her head, peeled it, and bit into it.  Surely did Lisa make the all due sour face after having done so, as Flanders had anticipated.  “Sour, girl?” he asked her in tease.

“Very,” she said.  “Sour.”

“And yellow,” he said in nonsense.

“Of course,” she said.  “Quite yellow.”

He then followed suit, picked for himself a lime from a lime tree, and held it up in the air before her with a show of grandeur.

“Sour?” she asked him.

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“I don’t know yet,” he said, as he began to peel it.  Both knew, though.

“Go ahead and eat your lime, Husband,” said the cheerleader.

And he bit into his lime.  “Sour!” he said.

“I knew it,” she said.  “And green, also?”

“Most green, Lisa,” he said.

“I have lots of seeds,” said Lisa about her lemon.

“But I have no seeds,” said Flanders about his lime.

“Lucky guy,” said Lisa Nickels.

“Unlucky gal,” said Flanders.

“Our God made lemons and limes different from each other,” said the cheerleader in black and yellow.

“But one thing we both know,” said Flanders.  “The Good Lord made both lemons and limes sour.”

“Sour,” agreed Lisa.  And husband and wife laughed together in delights of this snack and this silly talk and this praise of the Maker.

Then they sat down upon the tall grass that made all the more comfortable this comfortable grove.  And a thoughtful and peaceful interim of silence passed between the two for a while.  Then Flanders said, “Lisa, would you tell me again the good tale of how you first discovered this cheerleader uniform that you have on now?”

“My precious prize second only to my Bible,” she declared.

“Mine, too,” he said.  Then he said, “Second only to you, that is.”

And Lisa “Gravel” Nickels once more told him her true story of her cheerleader’s uniform which she put on everyday in her married life.  The following is a narrative upon that first day:

The family of six were all splashing around in Left Foot Creek just behind Mom and Dad’s

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cabin up here in Beaver.  Gravel was a fifteen-year-old girl dressed in a black one-piece swimsuit with yellow curve bars in front that accentuated her female’s sides.  And her young teenage swimsuit form was already like that unto a young woman.  She was tall for her age, but she was not going to go on and become taller as her teenage years were to pass.  She was hoping to catch herself a boyfriend in this, so she wore this maillot also all the time she was not at the cabin.  Men had a thing for swimsuit girls.  And, herself being a Christian gal, she felt that a one-piece swimsuit would be more decent to have on than a two-piece swimsuit might be.  After a while, the family finished their spree in the creek, and all but Gravel left the creek and disbanded and walked back to the cabin just out front a few hundred feet away.  A little bit of woods of shrubs and trees lay between the creek and the cabin; and in this privacy, Lisa sat down on the bank of the creek, her maillot dripping upon the ground all about where she sat, and she asked God, “Lord, could I have a boyfriend come along here and sweep me off of my feet?”

And the still small voice said into her heart, “First things first, My good daughter.”  She understood.  Her Saviour wanted something for her before He would give her a boyfriend.  What it was that had to come first for her, she could not fathom.  But it must be good—very good—if God had all to do with it for her.  And she waited upon God to act upon her life.  Lisa grew sleepy now where she sat in the sun before the flowing creek.  She raised her knees and put her head between her knees and soon fell asleep, sitting thus.  And she dreamed a dream.

She found herself in a deep woods of towering trees of much green leaves and standing before a wooden building like unto the ancient Parthenon of Greece, only with white columns of wood, and not of stone.  On this building’s front door was a sign that read, “Cheerleader Supply Company Enterprises.”  It was made of wood, and it was painted black and had yellow painted letters upon it, and it was nailed to the door just below a window in the door.  She looked around herself in this strange new woods.  She saw no roads anywhere near this big shop.  She saw no driveway offering access to this odd store in the woods.  She saw no parking lot for customers—either for vehicles or animals to

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park anywhere near this store.  And of customers going in and out, she found none.  She dared to approach this door and to peek through the window.  She saw a tiny little hallway with a solid door at its end, blocking her view of this shop.  “Cheerleader Supply Company Enterprises,” she said to God in inquisitiveness.  “Is this a store full of cheerleaders’ clothes?”  She was never a cheerleader before.  And she said this to God:  “I was never a cheerleader before, Lord.”  Asking God if she dare go in, she went on to nod her head and to go in.  And she went into the entrance way, and she opened the door at the end of this entrance way, and she came in.

She found herself in a room that had just a cash register and a checkout lane and no cashier.

Curious, she looked around this room and asked, “Is anyone here?”  No one answered.  She waited.  She asked again, “Is there anyone around?”  Again no one answered.  She looked away from this till and saw that this checkout room was in the shape of a hexagon; there were six walls each with a door in the middle.  One door was designated, “The entrance to the cheerleader skirt department.”  One door was designated, “The entrance to the cheerleader top department.”  One door was designated, “The entrance to the cheerleader sock department.”  One door was designated, “The entrance to the cheerleader sneaker department.”  One door was designated, “The entrance to the cheerleader pom pom department.”  One door was designated, “The entrance to the cheerleader ribbon department.”  Thence the six doors to the six rooms of this Cheerleader Supply Company Enterprises.  Not sure what to do, Gravel asked again a request for customer service, saying, “Where is everybody?”  Again no one answered.  And with eagerness, Lisa began to browse around.  And she went alone first to the department that sold cheerleader skirts.  And she went right in.  And she found racks of all manner of skirts for high school cheerleaders and college cheerleaders.  Each skirt was held up upon the racks by a metal hanger with two little clothespins attached to the bottom bar of the hanger.  And all of the skirts shone with the fabric “polyester double knit.”  Never before had colors looked so desirable to Gravel.

At once the browser became a shopper.  And she came right away to the section marked “Box-pleated

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cheerleaders’ skirts.”  Here were three racks, large and lustrous and abundant.  The first rack was filled with narrow box-pleat skirts.  The second rack was filled with standard box-pleat skirts.  The third rack was filled with oversize box pleats.  There were skirts with black main pleats and with contrasting pleats of another color.  There were skirts with white contrasting pleats and with main pleats of another color.  And there were skirts with all manner of other color combinations—all with two colors each.  And there were box-pleat skirts with yokes to them.  And there were box-pleat skirts with stripes running along the bottom.  And none were of elastic waistbands,  All were of zipper-button closures.  And this menagerie was the most exciting thing that she had ever seen before.  She then came to the section of this cheerleader skirt department that was marked, “Knife-pleated cheerleaders’ skirts.”  Here again vibrant colors dazzled her eyes and grabbed a whole upon her heart. Some of these knife-pleat skirts were all solid-colored; some of these knife-pleat skirts had stripes running along the bottom; some of these knife-pleat skirts had a yoke.  All of these had a zipper-button closure.  And the shopper became an avid shopper.  Then she went to the third section of this department, marked by the words, “Break-away pleated cheerleaders’ skirts.”  Here she found cheerleader skirts whose pleats were separated one from another from the top of these pleats down to the ends of the pleats.  These kinds of pleats were loose at the lower ends down in these skirts.  She dared to think to herself, “Why, these pleats, I’d bet, can really fly around.”  Each such break-away skirt was of one solid color throughout.

And they shone like unto a color of a gemstone.  And the shopper began to pick out her purchase.  And Gravel went back to the oversize box pleat rack where the skirts were of very wide pleats.  And she prayed for the skirt that God would have her to have.  And she found a beautiful skirt with six main black pleats and six contrasting yellow pleats.  She looked inside to read the tags with hopes in God.   Yes!  Size ten!  Her size!  “Thank You, Lord!” she said.  And she held this skirt in its hanger up against herself down there to examine it more personally.  This was it!  She then found out that she had not her purse and wallet with her.  Oh no!  How could she buy this now?  She prayed that God bring her her

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wallet, as only He could do.  Behold, a voice from another part of this shop called forth from somewhere, saying to her, “No charge, Lisa.”  It must have come from the storekeeper.  This was free for her!  “Amen!” she said to this mysterious merchant.  And there was no reply.  Then Lisa left this department, her wonderful new skirt held against her breast, and went through another door, and came to the cheerleader’s top department.  Here were big wooden tables upon which were arranged three different types of cheerleaders’ tops.  One table had neatly-folded cheerleader sweaters; one table had neatly-folded cheerleader shells; and one table had neatly-folded cheerleader vests.  These colors gleamed with vitality and vibrancy.  All of these cheerleader tops had not yet had a chenille emblem upon them.  Some of these tops were of symmetrical patterns.  Some of these tops were of asymmetrical patterns. The sweaters were all long-sleeved with cuffs that hugged the wrists and with bottom hems that hugged the waist.  All were made of Orlon Acrylic.  The shells were sufficient in themselves for the top, just as were the sweaters.  All had V-Necks.  All were completely sleeveless.  All covered the top of the shoulders.  All were made of one hundred percent polyester.  The same for the cheerleader vests, except the vests were worn with a long-sleeved upper garment within.  Lisa liked the shells and the vests, but she loved the sweaters.  So she had a word of prayer and went back to pick out the cheerleader sweater that would best match her cheerleader skirt.  And she found a ravishing sweater that was yellow on the top half and black on the bottom half upon the bodice and also yellow at the top half and black on the bottom half upon the long sleeves.  With bated breath she looked upon the tag within.  Yes, this was her size ten, too.  This was the cheerleader sweater that God had for her.

She wondered about her wallet left behind somewhere at a time before here.  But again the storekeeper’s voice called out to her from somewhere inside and proclaimed to her, “No charge, Lisa.”

“Thank you, sir.” she said.  “Thank You, God,” she then said.   She held this brand new cheerleader sweater against her front to admire herself, and she said, “Ooo,” and “Ah,” in delights.  Then, holding on tight to her clothes in her shopping adventure in progress, Gravel left this department and went into

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the cheerleader socks department.  Here was a room full of long knee socks all the colors of the spectrum.  They were hung upon pegboards with a plastic piece that consisted of a prong, with the pair of socks folded over the horizontal, and with a plastic hook on top that hung on a peg.  The cheerleader knee socks were solid colors enhanced with stripes running along the tops.  Some had one stripe.  Some had two stripes.  Some had three stripes.  Gravel had found a pattern that she was falling into in this shopping spree.  It was the colors black and yellow.  And she sought and found the perfect cheerleader knee socks to go with her new cheerleader uniform—black with three yellow stripes on top.  She looked at the tag.  It read, “Fits women’s shoe size seven to nine.”  Her shoe size was size nine.  These cheerleader knee socks fit her.  She waited for confirmation.  Then the mysterious man called out to her, “No charge, Gravel.”  “Praise Thee!” she called forth both to this man and to God Above.  And, hugging these precious garments against her heart, she then left this department and skipped into the cheerleader shoes department.  Here were a multitude of canvas sneakers of all the colors that sneakers could be made of.  These cheerleader sneakers were displayed upon open shoe boxes resting upon slanted shelves.  Yellow and black was her goal.  And she searched and found just the right pair for herself.  She found a pair of sneakers that were black with yellow soles and yellow shoelaces.  Again looking at the size, she saw that this cheerleader article fit her, too, just like all of the other cheerleader articles she was buying today.  These shoe’s sizes were women’s size nine—her own shoe size.  She looked outward to the other part of the store and saw no one.  She looked up to Heaven.  And she heard the friendly voice of the store merchant again say to her from afar, “No charge, miss.”  “I am very grateful, sir,” she said.  And she held these clothes against herself, careful not to drop any, and she left this department, and she came into the cheerleader pom-poms department.  She saw pom poms of one color and pom poms of two colors throughout upon little tables scattered in even rows and even columns in this department, each little table with one pair of pom poms for sale.  Some were small; some were medium; some were large.  Some had handles like unto rapier handles.  Some had handles

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like unto saber handles.  They all swished if shaken.  And Gravel quickly found the right black and yellow ones for her new outfit in progress.  They were each both black and white, and they had handles like unto sabers, and they were the largest pom poms of this department.  She shook them, and they swished sensuously in her ears. She asked God, “Are these for me, too, then, Lord?”  And the voice of mystique called back to her from this shop, “No charge, girl.”  “I am so thankful, Sir,” she said back to him wherever he was.  Then, her arms full, Lisa left this department to go to the last department of this Cheerleader Supply Company Enterprises.  This was the cheerleader ribbon room.  And she searched for the perfect black and yellow ribbons that would go best with her dark brunette hair and its long straight wisps.  These ribbons were displayed in cubbyholes in cubicles along the walls.  All the pairs of ribbons were of two colors.  No pair of ribbons were of one color.  She found three different pairs of black and yellow ribbons—one short; one medium; one long.  And she picked the long one, and held it to her head and looked in the mirror.  “Do you like these ones, Lord?” she asked.  And the benevolent stranger again called out to her from another room, “No charge, young lady.”  She agreed and chose these to complete her new cheerleader uniform.  Walking very gingerly, so as to not drop and lose any of these dear and precious cheerleader clothes, Gravel left this department and came up to the till.  These were to be free for her.  But truly she needed to see her benefactor and thank him for his beneficence upon her.  There was no man at this till.  She looked around and saw no man in this room. She turned back to the till, and she saw a man at this till.  Where had he suddenly come from?  He was not there just an instant ago.  Suddenly he was here.  And he said to her, “Lisa ‘Gravel’ Peters, I am the angel of the Lord.”

And she set her cheerleader ensemble upon the check-out counter, and she got on her knees and said, “I am Thy grateful servant.  Let my life honor Thee and glorify Thee and praise Thee from this day forth evermore.”

“My faithful Miss Peters, arise and stand,” said this angel of the Lord.

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And she stood up and curtseyed before Him.

And He said, “As I had been with the three Hebrews youths in the fiery furnace as One like unto the Son of God, so am I with you this day.  As I had been with Abraham upon his return from battle as Melchizedek and did bless him, so am I with you this day.  So as I appeared unto Joshua as the captain of the host of the Lord and did adjure him, so am I with you this day.”

“My Lord Jesus,” said Lisa, her understanding complete.

“My faithful daughter,” said Christ.  “My good and godly cheerleader.”

“Thy humble girl,” said Gravel.

Then the Lord said, “Thy cheerleader uniform is abundant and full, yet thou lackest one thing more.”

“What might such be, my Lord?” asked Gravel.

The Good Lord Jesus then pushed a button on the cash register, and the cash register gave forth a little ring, and the cash register drawer opened up.  Jesus reached into the drawer and pulled out a type of patch and held it in front of her.  It was an emblem of a megaphone in gray with big capital letters across it reading, “GRAVEL” in black.

“What might this be, Lord?” she asked, gazing upon it.

“It is a chenille emblem, Gravel,” he said.  “It is thy chenille emblem.”  She understood.  It was to be sewn onto the upper yellow portion of her cheerleader sweater.  “Reach thou out and grasp this,” said Jesus.  She reached out both hands and took it and held it.  “How doth the chenille emblem feel upon thine hands?” asked Christ.

“It feels good on my hands, Lord,” she said.

“Thy whole cheerleader uniform shall feel much more good to thine whole self when thou attirest thyself therein, my lady,” said God.

“When shall I put this on?” she asked.

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“Thou shalt become the cheerleader for God whereupon I finish my work for thee in this shop this day, milady,” said God.  “And after, whereupon thou provest thyself.”

“What is your work that needs to get done to make my cheerleader outfit all ready for me?” she asked.  But she knew.  The chenille emblem had to be sewn in upon the cheerleader sweater.  And Christ rang up the cash register again with a “ding,” and the drawer opened, and He took out a needle and a thread and a little scissors.”

She said in incredulity, “My Lord, are going to sew that on my sweater Yourself?”

He said, “Thus this fulfills thy Spirit.”  He extended His hand, and she obediently gave Him back her chenille emblem.  And the young Christian gal beheld in obeisance as her personal Saviour sewed her chenille emblem upon her sweater by hand.  And He was done after a short while.  Then He looked back up at her and said, “This cheerleader uniform awaits thee, My girl.”

“Can I put it on?” she asked.  “Can I put it on now?”

“Thou must yet pass one test,” he said.

“Tell me how to prove myself, and I shall prove myself,” promised Lisa.

And God said to her,  “When thou leavest Cheerleader Supply Company Enterprises, thou shalt find thyself in a familiar place of a sunny afternoon in a clearing by a flowing creek.  There thou shalt discover a wooden green bin.  Therein is thy gift from God.  It is thy cheerleader uniform.  Thou shalt not open it and look within for thirty days.  Thou shalt not open it and look therein and touch its contents for thirty days.   Thou shalt not open it and look therein and touch its contents and put its contents on for thirty days.  But on the thirty-first day, thou mayest open the green bin and look inside the green bin and touch the contents of the green bin and put on the cheerleader uniform in the green bin.”

She vowed, “Whatever you wish for me I shall do, O Lord Jesus.”

Then the angel of the Lord, this post-incarnate Christ, said to her, “Go to now.  Take thy gift.

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Await its coming.  Prove thy faithfulness.  Put it on the thirty-first day.  And put it on every day thou wishest for the rest of thy life.  And be thou happy and glad in the Lord.”

She turned to look at the exit door.  She turned back to the till.  And the Storekeeper was suddenly not there.  She had seen God and lived.  And she began to sing hymns of joy with herself at so sweet thoughts about what had just happened here with the Good Lord.  In obedience Gravel scooped up all of the pieces of her new cheerleader’s uniform in both arms, came to the first exit door, opened that and came into the hallway, came to the second exit door, opened that, and came out to the outside.  As soon as she stepped outside back to the dark woods where all of this had begun, she found herself sitting upon a warm sunny field of grass, her knees raised where she sat, and a flowing creek in front of her.  She was at Mom and Dad’s cabin out in the back.  She had been dreaming.  Or was it a vision from God?  She looked to her side, and she saw a wooden green bin with a lid and hinges and bands of iron and handles on both sides and a latch and a hook.  Lisa remembered all.  And she refused outright to open this green bin—even just for the cause of curiosity.  And she obeyed the commandment of the Lord for all thirty days.  And after the thirty days’ test, having proven herself to God and self, Lisa quickly went to her bedroom and put on all eleven pieces of her most savory and life-changing black and yellow cheerleader uniform.  Never before had this girl felt so good.  And ever after she would feel this good again.  And she put this on every day since.  And Gravel now cheered for Jesus.  She loved this outfit.  Her friends loved this outfit.  And all her family loved this outfit.  And unicorns loved this outfit.  Even passersby loved this outfit.  She almost got carried away in boast to say, “Even griffins love this outfit,” but she stopped herself before saying this.  God is a long-suffering God.

Here in the grove Flanders said, “What a way for a cheerleader to find her cheerleader clothes.”

“It sure beats ordering them from a cheerleader fashion catalog, Flanders.” said Lisa “Gravel” Nickels.

“God does good work,” said Flanders Nickels.

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Just then WhiteHouse, Flanders’s wingless she-unicorn, came running up to them in alarm.  “Master, Gravel, we must prepare for battle,” said WhiteHouse in this moment of exigency.

Flanders and Gravel looked at each other in puzzlement.

Right after this, CasaBlanca, Lisa’s wingless she-unicorn, also came in upon them in haste.  She said, “My mistress, good Flanders, the griffins are coming.”

Flanders and Gravel looked apprehensively around up in the skies.

Gravel asked, “Are you sure, girl?”

“Aye, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“They never came after us before,” said Flanders.

“Well they are coming for us now,” said WhiteHouse.

“What should we do?” asked Gravel.

“Prepare for battle,” said WhiteHouse.

And Flanders picked up his scythe with which he had trained for those days that were to come like unto now.  And Gravel picked up her sickle.  She had practiced with this, but now she must fight with it.

And Flanders said, “This day is the first day for us in our official ministry for God as griffin-slayers.  Gravel, stand behind me.  WhiteHouse, stand to my right.  CasaBlanca, stand to my left.  Prepare to fight for the Lord our God.”

“Wow,” said Lisa Nickels.  “My battle against my family’s griffins is about to start.”

“Are you ready, Lisa?” asked Flanders.

“I am ready, Flanders,” said Lisa.

Behold, six griffins coming from the skies from far away.  They flew in a straight line from front to back.  And they drew nearer.  And the four Christian warriors beheld and said not a word in this grave moment.  Then the six griffins began to descend in a spiral and to light upon the ground before

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them.  And when they were standing upon the ground, they were neatly massed for battle in a line of six, now from left to right.

And the first one in this horizontal line spoke and said, “I am ‘Ruins.’  I have come to ruin you.”

And the second in this line of griffin troops said, “I am ‘Wrecks.’  And I wish to wreck your lives.”

And the third griffin in this line said, “My name is ‘Crushes.’  My goal is to crush your hopes for your family’s salvation.”

And the fourth griffin spoke and said, “My name, Gravel, is ‘Breaks.’  I shall break you.”

And the fifth griffin said to the four of God, ‘My name is ‘Destructs.’  I take after the demon Apollyon, which by definition is ‘destruction.’”

And the sixth griffin went on to say, “And my name is ‘Destroys.’  I am like unto the demon Abaddon, which by definition is ‘destroyer.’”

Flanders said to Destroys, “Take your destroying elsewhere., vile griffin of Satan.”

And WhiteHouse said, “Destructs, do not think to do destruction here in the grove with us.”

And Gravel said, “Breaks, see my sickle?  Just try to break it!”

And CasaBlanca said, “Crushes, my hoof shall crush your head if you try anything with my mistress.”

And Flanders said, “Wrecks, just dare try to wreck my scythe.”

And Gravel said, “Ruins, your battles for the Devil will become your own ruin.”

And one of the griffins said to them, “We are more than you.”

Another griffin said, “And we are bigger than you.”

Another griffin said, “And we are faster than you.”

Another griffin said, “And we are smarter than you.”

Another griffin said, “And we are more experienced in battle than you.’

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And another griffin said, “And we are more courageous than you.”

The four Christian soldiers were temporarily at a loss for words.

Gravel asked, “Flanders, what can we say to all that?”

WhiteHouse asked, “Master, are they right?”

CasaBlanca said, “Are we to give up, Mistress?”

Gravel said, “We are smaller than they are, Flanders.”

“My comrades, where is your faith?” asked Flanders Nickels his fellow warriors.  “We serve a mighty God.”

Remembering the God Who fought for them and with them, Gravel said, “Good Caleb slew the Anakim when he conquered Mount Hebron to live there.  They were the giants, but his God was bigger than they.”

And CasaBlanca said, “Young David slew the giant Goliath with a sling and one stone.  He then stood upon him and slew him with his own sword.  God was David’s Victor in war.”

WhiteHouse then said, “And mighty Samson took a jawbone of an ass, and with super strength he slew one thousand Philistines in one battle all by himself.   The Holy Spirit of God gave Samson his strength.”

And Flanders said, “And Gideon, the judge and military leader of Israel, took on the Midianites in battle.   Gideon had three hundred men.  The Midianites had so many men that ‘they lay along the valley like grasshoppers for multitude.’  And God used Gideon to defeat their enemy and to free His people from oppression.”

Gravel spoke and said, “We do have God on our side, and the griffins do not.”

And WhiteHouse said a profound truth, “You griffins are not a lot bigger than us.  Really.”

And CasaBlanca to the griffins, “I heard of some of your own kind who fled from battle just to save their own necks.”

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And Lisa said, “Griffins die, too.”

And Flanders said, “Woe unto griffins if they fall in battle.   When a griffin dies, he goes to Hell.”

And all of the griffins began to chatter in discord and division.  And they began to fight among each other.  And they took their eyes off of their foes.  And, behold, they began to peck each other with their eagle beaks, and they began to scratch up each other with their eagle talons, and they began to maul each other with their lion paws.  And Flanders and his comrades watched as God did His work for them upon these six nasty griffins who lied to Gravel’s family.

In summary, Flanders Nickels said to Gravel and WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca as this was happening before their eyes, “It is written, ‘Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well:  the devils also believe, and tremble.’  James 2:19.”

Then, in terror of Almighty God, the six griffins screeched out demon words at Jesus Above, exclaiming, “Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth?  Art Thou come to destroy us?   I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God.”

It was time.  Flanders raised his scythe about his head.  Gravel raised her sickle to her side.  WhiteHouse lowered her unicorn horn.  CasaBlanca raised her unicorn fore hoof.

Then the six griffins looked and saw the four Christian warriors ready for battle in Christ.

And in fear for their lives they all panicked and did flee battle to save their lives.  And they lifted up into the skies where the four could not hurt them.  And they flew away as quickly as they could.  And they were gone.

“We beat them, Master!” said WhiteHouse.  “We and God!”

“Our first battle, Husband,” said Gravel.  “And we won it in the name of God.”

And CasaBlanca said, “The griffins ran away from us.  To God be the glory.”

Flanders said, “They shall come back.”

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“They still got my family,” said Gravel.

“Will they be fiercer when they come the second time, Mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.

“They shall be, girl,” said Lisa Nickels.

“Will there be bloodshed next time, Master?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Ours; or theirs; or both ours and theirs, girl,” predicted Flanders.

“Well, Husband, all the more reason for us four to keep training in our war games,” said Lisa Nickels.

“Good wife, good WhiteHouse, good CasaBlanca, shall we have another practice session with our weapons again right now?” asked their leader.

And all three others agreed with an “Amen!”

And Flanders said, “Amen!  Let us begin.”

And the four griffin slayers went on to a most strenuous training session out back behind the houses of the sand dunes.  And God looked down from Heaven and was most well-pleased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER X

WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca were grazing in the backyard.  WhiteHouse was in the garden of horsetails.  CasaBlanca was in the garden of cattails.  WhiteHouse spake and said, “Ah, horsetail plants!  For unicorns such are succulent as blueberries, savory as chives, plenteous as leaves.”

And CasaBlanca said, “I don’t know about you.  But I shall take my mistress’s cattails over that.

To me cattail plants are easy on the palate, tasty to the tongue, and good to the belly.”

“I praise the Lord for my master who grew this garden just for me,” said WhiteHouse.

“Praise God for my mistress in her kindness to me, too.,” said CasaBlanca.

“Yeah.  Your mistress made your garden just for you, too,” said WhiteHouse.

“I love my cattails more than any other food that grows out of the ground,” said CasaBlanca.

“And my favorite vegetable is horsetails,” said WhiteHouse.

CasaBlanca saw her fellow she-unicorn almost done with the horsetail she was eating now.   “How are the roots?” she asked.

“Once again just as good as the stem,” said WhiteHouse.  She saw CasaBlanca about to start

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another cattail.   “That nasty furry brown head,” she said about CasaBlanca’s next cattail.

“The only part that I don’t eat.” said CasaBlanca.  And CasaBlanca started eating her next cattail just below the furry brown head, and WhiteHouse finished the horsetail that she had begun.

As they ate, they talked about their lives before they had been befriended by their keepers.  CasaBlanca, in her growing up years, had lived with her unicorn parents in a “unicorn den in the woods.”  Being a unicorn den of the woods, her home was a living quarters with a ceiling and no walls, in the middle of the forest.  And in WhiteHouse’s growing up years with her mom and dad unicorn, she had lived in a “unicorn den in the fields.”  Being a unicorn den in the fields, her home had walls, but no ceiling, and it was in the middle of an open meadow.

The time came for CasaBlanca to move out and to start living on her own.  And she found a good place to live underneath a countryside bridge in the woods.  And her unicorn den, had the bridge as her ceiling and the open shafts underneath this bridge instead of walls.  A creek called the “Suamico River,” flowed underneath this unicorn den’s bridge.  And a shallow flowing waters of a few inches deep covered CasaBlanca’s floor of her unicorn den.  The flowing creek on both sides of this den was deeper than it was within the den, because the cement floor underneath this bridge was built at a higher level than was the bed of the creek.  Whereas the flowing creek within this den never reached more than three inches deep, to both sides of the den the flowing creek sometimes reached a depth of three feet.  Mud and rocks filled the depths of this creek.  And a bare cement foundation formed the floor of this unicorn den underneath the bridge.  The ceiling of CasaBlanca’s unicorn den—the bridge that passed by overhead—was ten feet above the creek.  And this little countryside bridge was about fifteen feet long and about fifteen feet wide.  Hence CasaBlanca’s unicorn den in her early days as a grown-up she-unicorn—ten feet by fifteen feet by fifteen feet—all underneath the little countryside road in the woods.  And this little countryside road in the woods was “Brookside Drive.”  Those early years of her adulthood were happy years, and they were lonely years.  She enjoyed God’s rustic lands with a

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young she-unicorn’s joy.  She hunted and galloped and journeyed and ate cattails and drank creek water and splashed in the creek and talked to God and looked at the white-tailed deer and played unicorn games with other wild unicorns in these woods.  Yet she was lonesome.  CasaBlanca wanted a keeper who could call her, “my own.”  Whether it would be a master or a mistress, CasaBlanca did not know.  The Lord knew which would be best for her.  And CasaBlanca began to pray that God give her to a loving human keeper—man or woman or boy or girl.  And God very soon answered this good she-unicorn’s prayers:

It had started with a Belgian Tervuren dog.  Webster’s Dictionary defined Belgian Tervuren as follows:  “Any of a breed of working dogs closely related to the Belgian Sheepdog and having abundant long straight fawn or reddish-brown hair with black tips and a dense undercoat.”  CasaBlanca knew about Belgian Tervuren from books about dog breeds when she stilled lived at home.  They were big dogs—handsome and pretty.  And they looked a lot like German Shepherds.  Yet their faces appeared savage to her in every picture that she saw of a dog of that breed.  They looked like vicious dogs in her unlearned mind.  Belgian Tervuren indeed were no more ferocious than any other pet dog.

But CasaBlanca had a secret apprehension of them.  And if she saw a real Belgian Tervuren, she would be tempted to flee.  They bite, she thought.  Well, one day, CasaBlanca was sitting upon her belly underneath the bridge and enjoying the creek flowing by across her underside.  She was again praying that God bring her a loving keeper.  Then she heard the voice of a little girl from above the bridge, saying,  “Thy will be done, O Jesus.”  Then CasaBlanca heard a most fierce canine snarling from above, up on that same bridge where the girl was.  The she-unicorn sensed a girl in distress.  And CasaBlanca jumped up to her feet, ran out from her unicorn den, and took a look above at Brookside Drive from the side.  On one end of this country bridge was a little girl standing stiff and straight and strong.  Her lips were praying.  Her face was resolute.  Her legs were trembling.  On the other end of this little bridge stood a real live Belgian Tervuren, growling and snarling and foaming at the mouth.

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Fifteen feet right now separated the girl in distress from the big dog of distress.  In seeking to rescue the girl, CasaBlanca at once said, “Mad dog, come down and face me, instead!”  The big rabid dog turned his head and looked upon the she-unicorn.  But no understanding shone in his eyes.  “Do you hear me, dog?” asked CasaBlanca.  “Leave the poor girl alone.”  CasaBlanca was brave. The Belgian Tervuren then turned his head and no more regarded the unicorn and now looked back upon the girl.

The girl went on to explain, saying, “Good white unicorn, he does not understand people talk.”

Of course.  Having never interacted much with people and their pet dogs, it had not occurred to this isolated she-unicorn that this dog could not understand English as she could as a unicorn.  CasaBlanca had much to learn about the difference between pet dogs and pet unicorns.  Dogs and cats and other domestic animals created by the Maker could not speak and understand English.  But griffins and unicorns and other such enhanced animals made by the Creator could speak and understand English.  The only thing that this mad dog could understand was CasaBlanca’s force as a unicorn with a unicorn horn.  And CasaBlanca quickly darted up the hill alongside of this road with a prayer that the rabid dog not get the girl before she could come to rescue the girl.  And when the wild unicorn came up to the road where the two stood, the big dog was still there, not having advanced one step farther yet; and the little girl was still there, not having retreated one step farther yet.  And CasaBlanca put herself between the girl in distress and the rabid wild Belgian Tervuren.  And she lowered her horn at the irrational and mad dog, foaming in his mouth.  She took one step forward.  He took one step forward.   She took another step forward.  He did not take another step forward.  She took another step forward.  He took one step backward.  She took another step forward.  He fled girl and unicorn, not to come back.  And CasaBlanca thereby had rescued a girl from danger.   And the girl raised her arms and hugged CasaBlanca around her upper equine chest.  And she said, “Thank you, pretty white unicorn.  You saved my life.  God has sent a deliverer to deliver me from a mad dog.”

And CasaBlanca shuddered in her knees at what she had just done despite her apprehensions.

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“Fair girl, I am at your service,” said CasaBlanca.   “God has saved your life this day.  I pray God that the mad dog not come back for you again.”  The she-unicorn’s trembling abated.

In Christian faith exceeding her years, this girl said, “God will smite that rabid dog for having threatened me this day.”  CasaBlanca’s fears left her now.

“Prithee, young miss, what might be your name?” asked CasaBlanca.

“I am ‘Gravel,’” replied this girl of God.  “My real name is ‘Lisa Peters.’”

“Lisa, ‘Gravel’ Peters,” said CasaBlanca in full.

“Yes,” said Lisa.  “Just exactly right.”

“It resonates,” said CasaBlanca about her name.

“What might be your name, pretty white unicorn?” asked Gravel.

“My name is ‘CasaBlanca,’” said the she-unicorn.

“Like the name of that Humphrey Bogart movie that my mom loves to watch from the olden days,” said Lisa.

“Humphrey Bogart?” asked the sheltered CasaBlanca.

“He came after Clark Gable in the old days of movies,” said Gravel.  “Mom liked Clark Gable in the movie, ‘Gone With the Wind.’”

“Clark Gable?” asked the naive white unicorn.

“I can’t blame you for not knowing those two,” said Gravel.  “They were famous in the movies of way back when Mom and Dad were younger than myself as I am now.”

“What might be ‘movies?’” asked CasaBlanca.

“You really don’t know about people, CasaBlanca,” said Gravel.

“I never saw people much in my life in the wild, Gravel,” she confessed.

“Would you like to get to know all about people?” asked Lisa Peters.

“I have begun to get curious about them recently in my life in my unicorn den beneath this

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road, O fair Gravel,”  confessed the lonesome unicorn.

“You live here?  You have a real unicorn den?  May I see it?” asked the girl in avid fascination.

“You have never seen what a unicorn den looks like, Lisa?” asked CasaBlanca.

“I have always wondered what kind of place that unicorns live in.” confided Gravel.

“You don’t get out much,” said CasaBlanca in mirth.  Indeed the girl had said the same thing to the unicorn.  And unicorn and girl laughed out loud together.  Then the she-unicorn said to the girl, “Do come down and see my humble home.”  And CasaBlanca led her down to her home.

“Why, it’s nothing but water and cement and air,” said Gravel.

“It’s home for me, Gravel.” said CasaBlanca.

“Where do you sleep?” asked Lisa.

“We unicorns can sleep standing up,” she told her.

“How do you sit down and rest?” asked Gravel.

“We unicorns feel comfortable in water all day long,” she told her.

“How do you eat?” asked Gravel.

“I have lots of patches of cattail plants to eat around in this countryside,” said CasaBlanca.  “And I hunt for meat in the woods when I wish for something more solid.”

“There’s no place for one to sit down and read the Bible in this unicorn home.  There is no place for one to kneel down and pray to God in this unicorn den,” said Gravel.

“I’ve got all of these woods in which I can read my Bible and pray to my God,” said CasaBlanca.  “I’ve got a whole forest in which I can worship my God.”

“These woods must be your yard,” said Gravel in understanding.

“A most vast yard at that, girl,” said the she-unicorn.

“Bigger than Mom and Dad’s yard,” said Lisa.

“Do you have a home?” asked CasaBlanca.

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“I do.  It’s a house,” said Lisa.  “And it’s bigger than your home way down here.”

“I’ve seen people houses,” said CasaBlanca.

“Would you like to see my house, O CasaBlanca?”

“I’d like that a lot, O Gravel,” he said to her.

“Follow me,” she said.

“Would we get to your house faster if you rode me?” asked the she-unicorn.

Gravel thought for a while upon this proposal for a moment, then said, “Not just any girl can go and ride on a wild unicorn’s back.”

“What kind of girl can ride a unicorn’s back?” asked CasaBlanca in contemplation.

“I would think one that is that unicorn’s mistress,” said Gravel in rumination.  “Only a master or a mistress ought to ride his or her unicorn.”

“Then wild unicorns can not give a girl a ride back to her home?” asked CasaBlanca learning protocol.

“I would love to ride you, O CasaBlanca.  And there is one thing that we can do so that you can give me a ride every day for now on,” said Gravel.

“I would love to give you a ride every day for now on,” said the she-unicorn, understanding.  And she said what she was thinking, “I could give up my wildness and become domesticated.”

And Gravel put it her way, “You could become my pet, CasaBlanca.  And–”

“And you could become my mistress, Gravel,” said CasaBlanca, finishing the girl’s sentence for her.  [Quote:  “And I could become your mistress, CasaBlanca.”  Unquote.]

And there in the basic unicorn den Gravel and CasaBlanca became mistress-and-pet.  And Lisa mounted CasaBlanca and directed the way for her to go and take her home.  She showed her new she-unicorn her Mom and Dad’s big house.  And Dad built a unicorn stable for her.  And Gravel went on to take full responsibility of taking care of the new family pet.  And everybody loved her pet, and her pet

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loved everybody.  Not long later, everybody in town was talking about a strange accident that happened on Brookside Drive just the other day.  A dog had been killed on that road when a young man with a team of four horses and a carriage accidentally ran him down.  The man confessed that he was at fault.  He told the police that he had wanted on the spur of the moment to see how fast his four horses could run.  He violated the speed limit in his adventure.  And the dog got trampled to death by all four horses.  The man confessed that he did not see the dog until it was too late.  The dog was identified as the rabid Belgian Tervuren who was terrorizing the countryside.  And no charges were pressed on this man.  Everybody was glad to see the dog go.  And this man was greatly encouraged by all the neighbors in his sorrow of the death of this mad dog.  It was then that Lisa told her family how the new unicorn had saved her life from this mad dog.  And they all went and told the neighbors.  And suddenly CasaBlanca was the hero of everybody in town.  And the newly domesticated she-unicorn was happy as Gravel’s pet unicorn all the more so.  And CasaBlanca was esteemed great of unicorn kind.  And unicorn and mistress grew in the Lord together.

How did WhiteHouse first meet her master-to-be?  In her childhood days in her life at home with her unicorn mom and her unicorn dad, she lived in a unicorn den of the fields.  That is, her unicorn den had walls but no roof, and her home was in a wide open meadow.  They lived underneath the Sunnybrook Drive bridge.  But this bridge was so far above their den that it provided no shade as a roof might within.  This bridge on Sunnybrook Drive was a wooden bridge high up and somewhat short and at a great arc.  There were no flowing waters underneath this bridge—just open meadows of wild weeds and tall field grass.  It was a tranquil field beneath a bridge of a tranquil country road.  The total length of this unique bridge in its big arc must have been as long as seven times as long as the bridge on Brookside Drive.  But it was still among the smallest of rural bridges in Wisconsin.  WhiteHouse was the youngest of her family of five unicorn kids.  And the siblings loved to go up to the Sunnybrook Drive bridge and to race up the bridge and back down the bridge in its steepness of road.  She always

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won.  She loved to run.  She ran sprints.  And she ran long races.  Her mom told her, “WhiteHouse, you run faster than horses.”  And her Dad said to her, “Daughter, you run like the wind.”  And her brothers and sisters said, “Sister, you could beat Secretariat.”  All was good and benign for this unicorn family in their unicorn den in the field.

But then problem people moved into a house not far away from this den.  They were WhiteHouse’s next-door neighbors about five hundred feet away.  And they were ignorant and stupid people with willful hearts and restless spirits.  This problem family consisted of a man who always had a cigarette in his mouth and a woman who always had a bottle of beer in her hand, and a big Old English Sheepdog who dug up horsetail plants in the area just to provoke young WhiteHouse.  The man’s name was “Boor.”  The woman’s name was “Babe.”  They were husband-and-wife.  And the big dog’s name was “Bète Bète.”  This dog’s master had won him in a bet with a charlatan.  The bet was over who would win the Ali-Frazier fight—the “Thrilla in Manila.”  The wager was this compulsive better’s Old English Sheepdog “Bet Bet.” And the problem gambler lost this bet to Boor.  Boor won the bet and the dog.  And Boor thought to give this dog a new and enhanced name, just to make it sound French, calling him now, “Bète Bète.”  This new name was French, at that.  But it translated to “Dumb Beast” in English, and the new master had no clue.  Nor did his wife, the new dog’s mistress.  And this Old English Sheepdog was the dumbest of the family of three.  All of WhiteHouse’s family contemned these new neighbors next door down the road.  Dad called them “low life.”  Mom called them “poor white trash.”  WhiteHouse did not know what to call them.  One by one, WhiteHouse’s older siblings began to move out and live on their own in their own unicorn dens.  And soon, WhiteHouse was alone at home with Mom and Dad.  Her parents taught her daily of the good life of a unicorn with a keeper.

None of her brothers and sisters had found a keeper of their own yet.  And Mom and Dad prayed for them often.  Her time was coming quickly where she must start life on her own as well.  And she had not yet found a keeper for herself.

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Then the Fourth of July came upon America—”Independence Day,” as the calendar always called it.  It was the holiday for all Americans to shoot off fireworks.  The three unicorns still at home in this unicorn den underneath Sunnybrook Drive, though they could not shoot off fireworks, themselves being unicorns, they could still watch fireworks.  And that the three did.  And they gazed out upon the local rural skies in the night.  Suddenly a firework blew up like a bomb!  This very unicorn den shook upon its foundation from this explosion some distance away.  It came from their nearest neighbors—the problem people and their problem dog.  That was no ordinary or legal firework by any means.  Never before had WhiteHouse heard such a firework go off like this firework went off.  It was a marvel if no one had gotten hurt from this.  Somebody should call the police.  Seeking a better look, WhiteHouse climbed up the steep long hill to the bridge and stood upon the bridge and looked across in the night sky toward these neighbors’ house.  She could see nothing unusual out there in this dark of night.  Then there came forth another loud explosion very much like another bomb.  It came from the same direction and distance as the first explosion.  And this one shook the solid wooden beams that held up the bridge of Sunnybrook Drive underneath WhiteHouses’ four hooves.  These fireworks were truly more than just fireworks.  They were breaking the law, setting these off.

Mom said to Dad, “Something bad will come from this.”

And Dad said, “Somebody is going to get killed.”

Then a third loud blast happened, and the earth shook down below.  From the direction of that blast, WhiteHouse, standing up upon the high bridge thought to see a house on fire.  And the three unicorns could hear a man cry out in surprise, “My house!  My house.”  This was the man setting off dangerous fireworks who said this.  Then, behold, a fourth blast came upon this countryside of celebration.  And a dog whimpered a last cry and was silent.  A man cried out from way over there, “My dog!  My dog!”  Another blast, a fifth very dangerous firework, blew up in the skies of this rural area.  And a man again cried out in wail from over there, “My wife!  My wife!”  Then another blast,

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a sixth great and loud explosion, resounded in the dark skies, and there was no cry.  This time all was silent.  The man was dead. The three unicorns waited and wondered and looked out into the dark of night over where their tragic neighbors had lived.  There were no more bombs going off there anymore in celebration of the Fourth of July by lawless people.  All was suddenly silent and quiet over there now.  And soon police cars began to go by on the Sunnybrook Drive bridge on their way to the scene of the accident.  The unicorn mom and unicorn dad now joined WhiteHouse up on the bridge to look.

After a long time of watching, then the three unicorns saw a young lad came walking up to them on the ditch of this Sunnybrook Drive.  He had a German Shepherd dog bigger than himself on a leash.  But this big dog was not dragging him behind himself.  This big dog was not even tugging on the line.

Instead he made sure to keep the leash with a slack between him and his master.  This boy, though young, had trained this dog as a grown-up would have trained this dog.  This boy had an authority to his manner that exceeded his years.  And he had a kindness to his dog greater than that of any dog master that the three unicorns had seen before.  And he had a love in his heart for animals that could only come from the Holy Spirit.  He spoke to the three unicorns, saying to them, “Those were real bombs.”

WhiteHouse spoke and said, “Where did they get real bombs?”

This boy said, “The sheriff is looking into that.”

“Is anybody left alive in that house?” asked WhiteHouse.

“No one,” said the boy.

“They are all dead?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Everybody,” said the boy.  “Man and woman and dog.”

“And the house?” asked the she-unicorn.

“Devastated,” said the boy.  “Leveled to the ground.”

“Is foul play suspected?” asked WhiteHouse.

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“The deputy is ruling it an accident,” said the boy.

“Poor foolish people,” said WhiteHouse.

“I wonder where they are now,” said the lad.

“They’re dead,” said WhiteHouse matter-of-fact.

“I mean, ‘Did they die in their sins?  I wonder,’” clarified the boy.

“I would think that they did not make it to Heaven,” said WhiteHouse.

“Oh, the folly of mankind,” said the boy.  “They must be in Hell now.”

“That’s a handsome dog you have,” said WhiteHouse.

“Why, thank you,” said the boy.  “His name is ‘King.’”

WhiteHouse lowered her unicorn horn in deference before this good fellow’s good dog.  And the German Shepherd raised his kingly head and kissed the she-unicorn on her head with his tongue.  “That a boy, King,” said this young man in affection.  Then the boy asked WhiteHouse, “What’s your name, O noble unicorn?”

And she said, “My name is ‘WhiteHouse.’”

“Truly a gallant name for a gallant unicorn,” said this lad.  “My name is Flanders.”

“Great to meet you, Flanders,” said WhiteHouse, proffering her right fore hoof to this fellow.

And Flanders eagerly reached out his free hand and took her hoof in his hand.  And they shook in greetings.

“I am a master of a he-dog,” said Flanders.  “And I seek a she-unicorn as pet.”

“I am the youngest of my family, and I am left alone now of my siblings here at my Mom and Dad’s unicorn den, and I seek a master,” said WhiteHouse.

“You love dogs,” said the young man.

“This one indeed,” said WhiteHouse.  “But not that one,” she said, pointing to the disaster scene.

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“Indeed my King is far more intelligent than was their Bète Bète,” agreed Flanders.

“I believe that King and I are already good friends,” said WhiteHouse.

“And King is not the jealous type,” said Flanders.  “You would be welcomed into the family by my German Shepherd just as affectionately as you would by myself.”

“Your humble unicorn at your service, O my master,” said WhiteHouse.

And she lowered her horn before this young man in submission.  And he reached out and touched her horn with his hand.  And they became master-and-pet.

Then the boy said, “Shall the five of us go and see the accident?”

And WhiteHouse said, “I am a curious young unicorn.  Let’s go see.”  And her mom and dad also agreed.

And the five walked over to see the accident scene.  And Flanders took off King’s leash and let him roam free around the action.  Flanders warned King, “Stay close by my side, good Boy.”  And that the good German Shepherd did.  And they wondered at bewilderment at such folly that had taken place here by people living without the fear of God in their lives.  Police cars and ambulances and fire trucks were everywhere here with their flashing lights lighting up the darkness of night in the countryside.  And there were many others like the five here who had also come to take a look at what happened.

Then King saw a metallic object underneath a part of a roof that was lying upon the ground.  It was round and shiny and heavy.  He was curious.  And, though he was wise in having found it, he was unwise in pursuing it.   And in his inquisitiveness the German Shepherd forgot his master’s command, and he left his master’s side to go see what this thing was.  And he came up to it, and he put his right fore paw upon it.  Suddenly an explosion like unto a bomb blew up with great force.  The German Shepherd was killed at once.  This was left over from this family’s illegal celebration of just a little while ago.  And Flanders fell upon his knees, and beat upon his chest, and looked up to Heaven.  And he prayed to God Above. “Thou hast given unto me, and Thou hast taken away from me.  Blessed be

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Thy name, O Most High God.”  And WhiteHouse was the first one there at his side to comfort him and to share in her heart their loss together.  Nobody else was hurt by this one last bomb.

Then Flanders said, “It is only you and me now, girl.”

“I give myself to you in your grief, Master,” said WhiteHouse.  “And I shall be your companion as King was your companion.  And with me I promise that you will never be lonely in life.”

“With you this day, I feel not lonesomeness, O good WhiteHouse,” said Flanders Nickels. She proffered her majestic white unicorn head, and he wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged her long and hard and adoringly.  “Thank you, girl,” said he to her.  “I am lonely no more.”

This was how Flanders and WhiteHouse had become master-and-pet.  And right after that, WhiteHouse and her unicorn parents bade each other a farewell, and her mom and dad went one way back to their unicorn den of Sunnybrook Drive, and she went another way with her new master to his house.   And the she-unicorn and her man-master went on to share much fellowship together in the Lord, praying together and reading the Bible together and going to church together.

“God has blessed us both, WhiteHouse,” said CasaBlanca, here in the two gardens out back in the countryside of Beaver.

“Who would have thought that your mistress and my master would meet and fall in love and get married, CasaBlanca?” asked WhiteHouse.

CasaBlanca looked down upon her garden from which she was eating.  “My mistress grows delicious cattails.  Praise God for cattails.”

And WhiteHouse said, “Praise the God Who makes horsetails taste so good.  My master has planted me a most wonderful garden.”  And she continued eating horsetails.

“God spoke His Word, and creation’s first cattail was,” said CasaBlanca.

“The same with the Maker of creation’s first horsetail,” said WhiteHouse.  “He spoke, and it came to being.”

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“They both came upon this new Earth on the third day,” said CasaBlanca.

“That glorious third day of creation,” said WhiteHouse.

“It is written, ‘And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:  and it was so.’  Genesis 1:11,” recited CasaBlanca.

“Yea!  Verily,” said WhiteHouse.   “Again it is written, ‘And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind:  and God saw that it was good.’  Genesis 1:12.”

“Scientists have a technical term for cattails,” said CasaBlanca.

“What is it?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Typha,” said CasaBlanca.  “Cattails are also called, ‘Typha.’”

“Scientists have a big name for my horsetails, too,” said WhiteHouse.

“What do they call them?” asked CasaBlanca.

“Equisetum,” said WhiteHouse.  “Horsetails are also called, ‘Equisetum,’”

As Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines my cattails, good WhiteHouse,” began CasaBlanca, “Any of a genus (Typha of the family Typhaceae, the cattail family) of tall reedy marsh plants with brown furry fruiting spikes; especially:  a plant (Typha latifolia) with long flat leaves used especially for making mats and chair seats.”

“You know how Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines my dear horsetails,” said WhiteHouse.

“Do tell me again,” said CasaBlanca.

And WhiteHouse recited its definition:  “Any of a genus (Equisetum of the order Equisetales)

of lower tracheophytes comprising perennial plants that spread by creeping rhizomes and have leaves reduced to nodal sheaths on the hollow jointed ribbed shoots.”

“There,” said Casablanca swallowing her last bite of today’ snack, “I’m full now.”

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“I, also,” said WhiteHouse.  “I cannot eat another bite.”

“Shall we go play some unicorn games out back here?” asked CasaBlanca.

“Yes.  Let us go and play unicorn games,” said WhiteHouse.

And the two she-unicorn pets began some fun games of running and chasing and being chased as unicorns can play best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XI

The four residents who lived at the sand dunes were cruising down the gravel roads of this isolated countryside outside of Beaver, Wisconsin.  Flanders was driving his Roadster Replicar, and Gravel was in the passenger seat, and the top was down.  And WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca were riding in the open flat bed trailer behind.  And they were having fun having the road to themselves.  “Master, your nice car is kicking up stones from the road back here.  I can see gravel spitting up behind the trailer here,” said WhiteHouse.

“Yes.  And I can see gravel being kicked up behind your car and in front of our trailer here, too,” said CasaBlanca.

“Are any of these gravel stones hitting either of you two?” asked Flanders.

“No.  But they might,” said CasaBlanca.

“Try ducking, girl,” said Gravel.

“And such dust coming up from all of these tires rolling over the road,” said WhiteHouse.

“In front and in back, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

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“Is any of this dust getting into your eyes, girl?” asked Lisa Nickels.

“It’s getting into my nose and into my mouth,” said CasaBlanca.

“Mine, too,” said WhiteHouse.  “It makes a unicorn want to sneeze.”

“And I feel like coughing,” said CasaBlanca.

And Flanders said in fun, “Would you unicorns prefer to run instead of to ride?”

“Our hooves hurt when we run on these kinds of roads, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“Would you girls rather walk than ride?” asked Lisa with a grin.

“That would take forever, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

And Flanders said, “Do stop and enjoy the ride then.”

They went and drove down a little hill of this road.  “Weeee!” said the two she-unicorns, enjoying this feeling in their bellies.  They then drove down a second decline in this road.  “Weeee!” said the two unicorns together again in gladness.

“That’s better,” said Flanders.

And all four laughed in this spirit of jest today in this ride in the country.

Lisa Nickels said, “I remember the first day we saw our sand dunes, Husband.”

“I remember, Lisa,” said Flanders.

“We were together,” said Lisa.

“We were newlyweds,” he said.  “And we were looking for a home in which we could spend the rest of our lives together as husband-and-wife,”

“I was your recent bride, and you were my recent bridegroom,” she said in remembrance.

“It was time for you to move out of your apartment.   And it was time for me to move out of my apartment,” he said.

“Near North Realty, Flanders,” she said.

“In Crivitz, way up north here,” he added.

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“The very same Realtor from whom Mom and Dad bought their own cabin just down the road a way from our place-to-be,” said Lisa Nickels.

“Was he not also the same Realtor who got your parents that place in Pembine on Young’s Lake?” he asked.

“Uh huh,” she said.  “He rescued that bird that was flying around in the little yellow barn in Pembine that day he showed us the house.”

“He’s a good man,” said Flanders.

“And a great Realtor,” said Gravel.

“Remember what he told us when he showed us our place here in Beaver?” asked Flanders.

“It was very mysterious, almost mystical,” said Lisa.

“And very convincing,” said Flanders.

“He said, ‘God is in this place,’” said Gravel.

“I could tell that he meant it,” said Flanders.  “He knew something about this place that we were going to move into.”

“And he did not just say that for a sales pitch,” said Gravel.

“He said something about the sand dunes,” said Flanders.

“He referred to our sand dunes as ‘a most magical place,’” said Lisa.

“I looked out upon our sand dunes, and I did not see anything different about them from any other sand dunes here in our countryside,” said Flanders.

“Oh, but I did,” said Gravel.

“What did you see?” asked Flanders.

“I didn’t see anything, but my heart could feel magic,” she said.

“You felt magic when you looked at the sand dunes?” he asked.

“No, not when I looked upon them, nor when I stood before them,” she said, “but, rather, when

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I walked out into them,”

“I fell in love with them as soon as I stepped out into them, too,” he said.  “But I did not feel any magic coming from them.”

“God told me that something wonderfully great was going to happen in there someday,” said Gravel.

Remembering her dream place of Xanadu that she told him about in her confidance to him throughout their marriage, Flanders said her thoughts now, years later, “That Dream of Dreams.”

“Yeah, Flanders,” she said.  “My Dream of Dreams.”

“The magic of your intercessory prayers for the souls of your family and of your faith in God for their salvation must been that magic of the sand dunes that made the Realtor say that God was in those sand dunes,” said Flanders.

“’Xanadu’ is a most magical word,” she said in reverie.

“Salvation is always a most magical miracle of God,” said Flanders.

“And prayer is a most divine thing,” she said.

“I am a believer now in this magic,” said her husband.

“Do you believe in the magic of our sand dunes?” she asked.

“I do remember now something I saw on my first visit to our sand dunes our very first day together here,” he said.

“Was I with you that moment?” she asked.

“No.  I was alone,” he said.  “But what happened in those sand dunes, though seemingly natural, had to be more like supernatural.”

“What did you see, Husband?” she asked.

“Looking back now, what I saw had to be animals with an inherent sense of God in their eyes,”

he told her.

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“Animals that knew God as their Saviour?” asked Lisa Nickels.

“No,” he said.  “More like animals who knew God as their Creator,”

“They were unicorns then,” the cheerleader surmised.

“No, not unicorns, but, rather non-talking animals,” he said.

“God’s natural animals who knew God as His supernatural animals do?” she asked.

“It was magic,” he said.

“What all went on in our sand dunes that first day for you alone there, Husband?” she asked.

He said, “I was standing there, just outside the edge of our new sand dunes, Gravel, and I leaned down and scooped up a handful of sand and let it fall between my fingers back onto the dunes.  Then, in a Holy Spirit inspiration, I asked God, ‘Wise Creator, teach me something that I need to know.’   And just then I saw a great buck with great antlers walking by in front of me out in the sand dunes.  I could see human intellect in his deer’s eyes.  I asked him, ‘Do you know God?’   And he stopped and looked at me.  Then he turned back away and peacefully continued his stroll off into the woods.  Then I saw our little lone tree that we both came to love that is in our sand dunes.  I saw there in the branches of that tree a flock of hawks.  I asked them then, ‘Do you know God?’  They all turned at the same time to regard me where I stood.  Then all at once they flew out of the tree and off into the skies and beyond the horizon.  Then I saw a rabbit run by in front of me, then a coyote running after him in pursuit. They were both in the sand dune.   I asked them both, ‘Do you know God?’  And the rabbit stopped his fleeing to look upon me.  And the coyote stopped his hunting to look upon me.  Then the coyote ran off one way.  And the rabbit ran off the other way.  Then a Bald Eagle descended from the sky in a gliding spiral.  I watched him as he came to light upon the ground in the sand dunes.  He looked upon me, and I asked him, ‘Do you know God?’  And he opened his eagle beak and gave forth an eagle’s call.  Then he spread his wings and lifted up off of the sand, and flew up into the air until I could see him no more.

I tell you, Gravel.  These were not normal animals.  They came from God.  And they returned to God.”

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“What do you think that the animals were saying to you in the look in their eyes?” asked Lisa Nickels.

“That the Lord is God of this life and God of the life to come,” said Flanders.

“God is Lord of life and Lord of afterlife,” she said in understanding.

“The life to come for your loved ones,” he told her manifestly.  “The afterlife for your loved ones.”

“Were those wild animals in their eyes telling you about my family and where they’re going?” she asked. He nodded and said that he thought so.

Lisa Gravel Nickels went on to say, “In God’s will.  In God’s time.  In God’s way.   In God’s place.”

“But first we four have work to do,” said Flanders.

“We’ve got ourselves a bunch of griffins that we must slay,” said Gravel.

“My unicorn horn has yet to be stained with griffin blood, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“And my hoof has not broken a griffin bone yet, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“My scythe has not seen action yet,” said Flanders.

“Nor my sickle, yet, its first battle,” said Gravel.

“We must find them and slay them,” said WhiteHouse.

“They are elusive,” said CasaBlanca.  “First they’re here.  Then they’re there.”

“They hadl come to us,” said Flanders.

“And they will come to us again,” said Lisa.

“We don’t have to go after them to get them,” said CasaBlanca, understanding.

“They will go after us to get us,” said WhiteHouse.

“I fear even now for your family, Gravel,” said Flanders.

“You do, too,” said Gravel.

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“There is much in the Bible about the Holy Spirit’s calling,” said Flanders.

“Do tell me what’s on your mind, Flanders,” said Gravel.

“They may be close to the point where they cannot get saved after all of this listening to those griffins and all, Lisa,” said Flanders.

“Do you mean like in “quenching the Holy Spirit?’” she asked him.

“Yeah, ‘Grieving the Holy Spirit,’” he said to her.

“I know what you mean,” said Gravel.  “Tell me what you know.”

And he summed up his sound spiritual reasoning, “When the Holy Spirit speaks to a lost person and tells him of his sins and of his need for the Saviour for that person’s first time, that is the time for that person to reach out for Jesus and get saved.  But if he refuses Christ that first time, he is still lost.  Behold, the Holy Spirit comes knocking on the door of that lost person again, some time later.  And the Spirit of God says to that person again, ‘Jesus saves.’  This unsaved person had already rejected Jesus earlier, for his first time.  This time, that person’s second time, he finds it easier to say, ‘No,’ to Jesus than he did that first time.  And he says, ‘No,’ to God for his second time in his life.  And he is still lost in his sins.  Later on in his life, the loving and faithful Holy Spirit goes and tells that unsaved person a third time, ‘Seek Christ and live.’  This person had already been spoken to by God for this so needful salvation twice already.  And this third time that God speaks to him is easier for this person to reject Jesus than it was for his second time.  And he rejects the Lord for his third time.  And he is ‘quenching the Spirit,’ ‘grieving the Spirit,’ with each refusal of God.  And each time the Lord speaks to his heart, it is easier for that man to not listen to God.  And each successive time, for that man, rejecting the Saviour is easier than the previous time.  And the still small voice of the Holy Ghost gets ‘quieter and quieter’ in that man’s heart.  And his heart gets harder and harder.  And his ears ‘get more and more deaf.’  And his eyes ‘get more and more blind.’  Then, after so long in life, his heart is completely hardened, and his ears are totally deaf, and his eyes are totally blind, to God.  And he can ‘no longer

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get saved,’”

She thought upon her husband’s words.   She had heard Pastor preach this in his sermons.  She had thought about this very thing with regard to her lost family.  Flanders was right.  God’s mercy and grace may no longer be available to her loved ones for their continuous rejection of the Saviour of the world through these very many years past.  And she sighed and said, “Those griffins are stubborn, Flanders.”

“They don’t quit,” said Flanders.

“Maybe we should have gone after them already by now,” said Lisa.

“They have been lying to your family for a long time now,” he said.

“Battle is scary,” she said.

“Fear not, Wife,” he said.

“We still have the Bible, Flanders,” she said.

“It is written about the Holy Bible, Lisa,” he began, “’For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.’  Hebrews 4:12.”

“And we still have prayer, O Husband,” she said.

“It is written about praying,” he began, “’Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee:  because he trusteth in thee.’  Isaiah 26:3.”

“And we serve a God of love,” she said.

“It is written about God’s love in Ezekiel 18:23, ‘Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?  Saith the Lord God:  and not that he should return from his ways, and live?’  Again it is written about the love of our God, ‘For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God:  wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.’  Ezekiel 18:32,” said Flanders words of precious

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encouragement and sincere exhortation.

“I know that our one God is greater than all of Satan’s griffins, Flanders,” said Gravel.

WhiteHouse said, “Master, there’s the two-rutted road that leads to the little cabin of Gravel’s parents.”

“Ah, my mistress, can we go and see it again?” asked CasaBlanca.

The four had gone cruising to and fro.   Now they were now almost all the way back home from their journeys.  And a left turn would take them to the little cabin.  And a right turn would take them to their homes.

“Let’s take a left, Master,” said WhiteHouse.  “Let’ go and spend some time at the cabin.”

“Shall we, Lisa?” asked Flanders.

“Let’s Flanders,” said Gravel.  And Flanders took a left turn toward the cabin by the creek.

No one would be there.  The family went to the cabin only on weekends.  And today was a weekday.

“Mistress, we get the cabin all to ourselves,” sang out CasaBlanca.

“It is small, but nice,” said WhiteHouse.

And they pulled into the wild fields of uncut wilderness that was the yard to the cabin, Roadster Replicar and flatbed trailer and all.

And the two she-unicorns jumped up out of the trailer before Flanders could open the back gate of the trailer.  And they all ran up to the little one-room cabin.  And they went into the screen porch.

They saw the little white wooden picnic table that Gravel’s dad had made for the family of six.  It was a tight squeeze for the six to sit down and have their picnics upon.  “Ah,” said Gravel.  “I think upon those ranch tortilla chips and the green grapes and the chocolate sandwich cookies with the creme filling and the orange beverage that we ate  and drank together here as a family at this picnic table back when I was a little girl.”

“And I, too, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

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“We always made room for you at our picnic table, girl,” said Lisa Nickels.

“I had to stand,” she said.  “And I prefer standing to sitting.”

“Master, let’s go in and see the cabin,” said WhiteHouse, standing before the door of the cabin.

And Gravel said, “See it you shall, O curious WhiteHouse.”

And Lisa took a key out of her purse and unlocked the cabin door, and they all four went in.

“More memories, Gravel?” asked her husband.

“Things are so much in here just as they were when I was still a little girl,” she said.  “These green plastic bowls and plates just for the cabin that we used to use as a family back home In Menasha.  That was before Mom went and bought nice Friendly Village plates and bowls for the official family China.  And my old second grade math workbook.  This is not the one that I had at school.  As you all know, this was one of those math books that a kid could buy at a drug store back in olden days.  I had others at one time from the same store for other grade levels.  I do not know what became of them.  But this one is still here.  Oh, to be young again.  And these bunk beds.”

“All bare wood,” said CasaBlanca.

“And all with blue air mattresses on top,” said WhiteHouse.

“One on this side of the cabin.  And one on that side of the cabin,” said Flanders.  “Each two beds high.”

“And a cot toward the front here.  And a cot for the back there,” said Lisa.

“And a braided elliptic rug for me in the middle of the cabin,” said CasaBlanca.

“Sleeping quarters for a family of seven,” said Gravel.

“The big black oil furnace in the back corner for heat,” said WhiteHouse.

“And an outhouse around out back for you people of the family, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“And a little gas stove on top of the counter on this side of the cabin,” said Lisa.  “The tank is outside just on the other side of the wall.”

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“And the brown tiles on the floor,” said Flanders.

“And the orange rug in the shape of a big left foot,” said CasaBlanca.

“To make us think of Left Foot Creek that runs by out behind this cabin,” said Gravel.

“’A creek that one can drink from,’ you tell me, Gravel,” said Flanders.

“And a creek that one can wash up in,” said CasaBlanca.

“Both unicorns and people,” said Lisa.

“Where did your family get this left foot rug?” asked Flanders.

“I cannot remember,” said Gravel.  “But I remember how Little Brother did his ‘Crazy Louie’ dance upon this rug.”

“A ‘Crazy Louie’ dance?” asked Flanders.

“His own little jig that he made up with the imagination of a little boy,” she said  “Whenever he did that, Mom would call out in a mother’s love for her little boy, ‘Crazy Louie!’”

“Was there a ‘Louie’ out there?” asked Flanders.

“None that I ever knew of,” said Lisa.  “”Crazy Louie was a regular show that Little Brother did put on.  But then Little Brother grew older, and he outgrew his happy little dance.”

“He must have been a cute little boy,” said Flanders. “Your mom must have a wisdom within her in her love for little kids,” said Flanders.

“A wisdom that I don’t have,” said Gravel.

“And a wisdom that I don’t have,” said Flanders.

“The Lord has not given me a child in my womb,” she said.  “And I am all right about that.”

“I am all right with that, too,” he said.

“I am different from Mom in that way,” said Gravel.

“I kind of think, as a man, that children might come and take away the romance in a marriage,” he said.

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“Yeah,” she said.  “When I married you, Husband, I was not marrying a bunch of kids.”

“Our pets are our kids,” he said metaphorically.

“We two love unicorns,” she said.

“And we unicorns love you, Mistress, Flanders,” said CasaBlanca.

“And that means I, also, Master, Gravel,” said WhiteHouse.

“Think of all the things that we could not do together if we had a baby, Flanders,” said Lisa.

“I do not dislike kids, but babies?  Babies are not people that I like to look at and to hear,” confessed Flanders.  “I would not be happy having brought a baby into the world.”

“I think that babies scare you,” she said.

“Yeah.  They might,” he said.  “Like banshees.”

“Mom still likes you anyway,” said Gravel.

“And I like your mom.  She’s a good woman,” said Flanders.

“I know something else about you that you tell me,” said Gravel.

“What don’t you know about your husband that tells you everything?” he asked.

“Something as real bad to you as babies,” she said.

“Ick.” he said.  “I know what you mean.”  And he plugged his nose with his thumb and index finger in reaction.

“Perfume,” said Gravel.

“Yuck,” he said.

“I know what you tell me whenever a woman with perfume walks by,” she said.

“’Stinks worse than the sewer,’” he told her what he always told her.

“Well I feel the same way,” she said.  “And I will never change my mind.”

“You are a wise woman, Lisa,” he said.  “Women who put on perfume have a mind such that the elevator does not go to the top floor.”

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“That is the only thing that I ever heard you to complain about,” said Lisa.  “You absolutely revolt against perfume everywhere.”

“Of course,” he said.

“And you do not like it when girls go and get a tan,” she said.

“Tan girls are not pretty girls,” he said.  “And a tan complexion will never turn my head.”

“You always tell me how nice and white I look, Flanders,” said Gravel.

“Much of your beauty to me is your nice and light and white skin, Lisa,” he said.

“As for myself, I do not want to lie in the sun and get a tan,” she said.  “I like my skin quite white.”

“That’s my woman,” he said.

“And woe unto any woman who cuts her hair,” said Lisa Nickels.

“I once knew a beautiful woman who shopped at my grocery store that I work at, Lisa,” said Flanders.

“Ah, your special gray fox of a lady,” said Gravel.  “You introduced her to me and me to her one day.  She was a beautiful older lady.”

“She was a silver fox unlike any other.  She had long straight gray hair with bangs.  Had I not already fallen in love with you, I would have daydreamed about giving her a kiss,” said Flanders.

“Whoa!   I know you, Flanders.  You don’t go and “kiss” just any girl,” said Gravel.

“You are my only one I ever kissed for real, Gravel,” he said.

“I still see her at the store,” said Lisa.  “She looks different now.”

“Alas, she’s no longer a romance in my heart,” he said.

“Isn’t her hair short now?” asked Gravel.

“Yeah.  She went and cut her hair,” he said.

“What a thing for a beautiful woman to go and do like that,” said Lisa.

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“But I still like brunettes more than I do gray foxes,” said Flanders.

“And your brunette promises you, Flanders, that she will never go and cut her hair short on you like she did,” said Gravel.

“Even when your hair turns gray?” he asked with bated breath.

“Even when my hair turns white,” she promised.

“What a woman,” he said.

“And you, Flanders,” said Lisa.  “Promise me that you will never shave off your beard.”

“I shall never shave off my beard, Lisa,” he promised.

“Promise me that you will keep letting it get longer,” she said.

“I shall let it grow longer and thicker, Wife,” he said.

“And promise me that you will never shave off your mustache,” she said.

“I shall never shave off my mustache, Lisa,” he said.

“Don’t even go and trim it for a while yet,” she said.

“You and I agree, fair Lisa,” he told her.

“And do keep your hair short,” she said.  “I like my man to look like a guy.”

“It’s kind of getting long now,” he said.  “I think that I will get out my scissors at home and cut off some of my hair with it.”

“One minute for just the bangs and five minutes for the whole head,” she said.  “I know how you do it.”

“Saves time and money,” he said.

“You look cute when you cut your hair,” she said.

“Women like their men with short hair,” he said with understanding toward his wife.

“And, likewise, men like their women with long hair,” agreed Lisa Nickels.

“What about us unicorns?” asked WhiteHouse.

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“Yeah.  Us,” said CasaBlanca.  “What do keepers like in their unicorns?”

And Flanders said right out, “Nice long horns.”

“Our horns are both nice and long, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

And Lisa said, “Nice white coats all over.”

“We both are glistening white, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“And manes blowing in the wind,” said Flanders.

‘           “I’m inside,” said WhiteHouse.  “Is my mane still pretty?”

“Aye, girl,” said Flanders.

“And shiny black hooves,” said Gravel.

“I’m inside,” said CasaBlanca.  “Are my hooves still nice and black and shiny?”  She held up a hoof to show her mistress.

“They positively glow in the sunlight through the window, girl,” said Gravel.

“And good unicorn wisdom,” said Flanders.

“I read the Bible,” said WhiteHouse. “And I pray.”

“That is where eternal wisdom can be found, girl,” praised Flanders.

“And a faithful and loyal heart,” said Lisa Nickels.

“I will lay down my life for you and God in battle if need be, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“God bless you, CasaBlanca,” said Gravel.

“God be with you, WhiteHouse,” said Flanders.

Having had their fun on a quick little spontaneous visit to Gravel’s parents’ cabin just a couple miles from their own homes by the sand dunes,  the four got back into the car and into the trailer, in their respective places, and Flanders drove all back home once again after a pleasant summer afternoon drive in the country.

 

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CHAPTER XII

Husband and wife looked out onto the sand dunes from in front of their campus of buildings that they called “our house.”  It was dark of night.  There was no traffic traveling down their road just on the other side of the sand dunes—neither animal nor vehicle.  The moon was a shiny perfect crescent moon, and it was directly above.  And it was midnight.

“Are you sure that nobody can see us out here?” asked Lisa “Gravel” Nickels.

“We are alone in conjugal relationship,” he said.

“My CasaBlanca?” she asked.

“Asleep in her stable,” he told her.

“And your WhiteHouse?” she asked to make sure.

“Asleep in her stable, also,” he told her.

“Being outside like this is better than being inside like this,” she said.

“So sweet magic of romance, milady,” he said.

“Under our Lord’s crescent moon,” she said.

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“We’ve got all night,” he said.

“Am I an irresistible cheerleader, Husband?” asked Gravel in black and yellow.

“You are my own siren from Heaven,” he said to her.

“God sees us,” she said.

“So do the angels,” he said.

“Maybe even the saints who have gone on to Heaven before us.” said Gravel.

“But it is still legal.  We have a license.  Thanks to Pastor Preamble,” he said.

“These things are God’s gift to marriage,” said Gravel.

“I love your wisps blowing in the wind out here,” he said to her.

“Husband, look, but do not touch,” she flirted with him.

He leaned his face toward the side of her head, and he felt her angel’s hair in its straightness and its blackness brush across his cheek.  “OO!” he said.

“Sexy?” she asked.

“Even more sexy than your pleats, my lady,” he said.

“That’s real love,” she said.

They looked into each other’s eyes in the dim light of the crescent moon.  Their eyes were at the same level.  And he saw brown eyes truly “the Spirit and Soul of life.”  He said to her, “Your eyes of brown give the light of God even in this dark of night.”

“Do my eyes tell of their Maker?” she asked.

“In your eyes I see brown a more desirable color even than black and yellow,” he said to her.

“My eyes are more beautiful even than my cheerleader uniform?” she asked.

“Yeah.  I really think so,” he said to Gravel.

“How long have you felt this way?” she asked.

“Just right now,” he said.

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“That’s a very romantic thing to say to a cheerleader,” she said.

“I never thought that I would ever say a thing like that before,” he said.

“I’m a foxy lady,” said Lisa Nickels.

“You are my ‘Gravel—The Fox,’” he said.

“Husband,” she said.

“Yes?” he asked.

“You’ve got irresistible teeth,” she said.

“My eccentric and unique buck teeth,” he confessed.

“Overbite,” she said in flirt.  “I love to kiss those.”

“Touch my teeth, but don’t kiss,” he said in coquetry.

Gravel reached forth her index finger and affectionately passed it down across his two teeth of overbite.  “What a handsome face,” she said.

“Now say what you always say,” he said to her in this moment of inspiration.

And she said it to him, “I am glad that your teeth are not hidden by lips.”

“God made me,” said Flanders in honor to his Maker.

“And God made your beard and your mustache,” praised Lisa God and husband.

“God has not endowed ladies with facial hair as He has men,” said Flanders in glory of their Creator.

“God’s gift to men,” said Gravel right out.

“Touch, but do not grab,” he said about his beard.

And Gravel reached out her hand and affectionately passed it across his long masculine beard top to bottom.  “Nice and rough.” she said in gladness.

“May I touch your cheerleader sweater cuffs, my wife?” he asked.

“Our romance game tonight, Flanders?” she asked, knowing the game he proposed.

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“We cannot do our romance game inside like we can outside,” he said to her.

“Not enough room in the house,” she said to him.

“Lots of room out here in the sand dunes,” he said to her.

“Grab my cheerleader sweater cuffs, good husband,” she said to him, proffering her wrists.

And he grabbed a firm hold of her wrists in his hands, and he began to spin around in his circles.  As they began this romance game of theirs, she necessarily stumbled around with him for a moment.  But then he got her airborne.  And now her feet were off of the ground.  And she was flying through the air, her cheerleader legs parallel to the ground, and her arms held surely by his hands.  And she was going around and around.  And she was getting giddy.  And she was getting dizzy.  And she was getting “high.”

He, too, though being the engine behind this frolic thus, was becoming delightfully dizzy.

Only romance could turn a simple game for children into a game for adults like this.  Around and around they went—he, his feet upon the sand dunes; she, her feet above the sand dunes.  “Weee!” she sang out in glee.

“Yea!  Yea!” said he in the fun of their spree.

“I feel the wind going through my pleats,” she sang out.

“I see the wind playing its game upon your pleats,” he replied.

“What else do you see?” she asked.

“I see your zipper in back,” he said to her.

“Nay.  Do not look at my zipper,” she said in frolic.

“But I do not see your button in back,” he said to her.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because your sweater back there covers that up,” he said.

“Do not look at my button,” she said.

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“I shall content myself with looking at the back of your sweater,” he said.

“You have a thing for the backside of your cheerleader wife, Flanders Nickels,” she said in games.

“That’s because right now that’s all that I can see of you,” he said.

“Less talking and more spinning,” she said.

“More spinning and less talking,” he mimicked her.

“You got that backwards, but it is still what I said,” she said.

“Did I say the ‘inverse’ or the ‘converse’ of what you told me?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said.  “I never took logic class as you did.”

“If I had studied induction as well as I had studied deduction, I would have gotten an ‘A’ in that class instead of a ‘B,’” he said to her.

“Tell me again that tricky syllogism that you learned in logic class,” she said to him.

And he told her:  “Peas are better than nothing.  Nothing is better than steak.  Therefore peas are better than steak.”

Then she spoke and said, “Flanders, I think that you are beginning to let go.”

“No. I’m not,” he said.

“Yeah.  I think you are,” she said.

“No.  I think that I am not,” he said.

“I know you are,” she insisted.

“I know I am not,” he insisted.

Suddenly the grip was let go.  Her wrists were free.  And she flew five feet off to the side.  And she fell upon her belly in the sand dunes and gave out a gasp of breath.  The first thing he said was, “Are you all right down there?”  Then he came up to her.  And he confessed, “I seem to have let go.”

“You let go,” she said, giggling.  “And I am all right down here face down in these sand dunes.”

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“I give you my regrets over my little faux pas, Lisa,” he said in merriment.

“A gentleman always helps his lady to get back up,” she said, returning the wit.

She rolled over and sat up in the sand.  “You are okay,” he said.

“I know,” said Gravel.  “But now I’ve got sand inside my skirt.”

“Did you get sand inside your sweater?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

“Then raise God for that,” he said.

In reply, the cheerleader rolled her eyes at him.  “Allow your gentleman to help you up, my lady,” he said.  And she reached up her arms, and he took them in hers, and he lifted her back up to her feet.

“Ah.  That’s better, Husband,” she said.

“Every cheerleader needs her knight in shining armor,” he said to her.

“Every princess needs her prince,” she said.

“Every gal cheerleader needs a guy cheerleader,” he said to her.

“I never got to work with a guy cheerleader,” said Gravel.

“The guy cheerleader always lifts the gal cheerleader above his head,” said Flanders.

“They do that?” she asked.

“Uh huh,” he said.

“They must look awful silly dressed as cheerleaders—those men,” she said.

“How come you say that?” asked Flanders.

“We gals ought to be the ones wearing the cheerleader skirts—not their guy cheerleaders, too,” she said.

“Goofy cheerleader who was never a real cheerleader,” he teased her.  “The guy cheerleaders wear pants when they cheer at the games.”

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“Oh.  I thought they wore sweaters and skirts,” she said.  “But they must wear sweaters and pants, then, instead.”

“Yep, Gravel,” he told her.  “High schools have decent dress codes for the genders when it comes to cheer leaders

“I never saw a boy cheerleader before,” she said.

“You probably never saw a boy cheerleader lift up a girl cheerleader above his head and hold her up there.  Did you?” he asked her.

“That is one trick that I have never studied as the cheerleader-for-the-Lord before, Flanders.” she said.

“I could show you how it’s done,” he said to her.”

“Would it be the same for you if you were not dressed in a guy cheerleader outfit?” she asked.

“That would make it better, myself dressed for the part,” he said.  “But neither one of us right now out here like this can find such a thing as a male cheerleader outfit anywhere around in the night.”

“I can still play my part in my women’s cheerleader uniform,” said Gravel.

“I’d like that,” he said.  “Let’s do it!”

“I’d like that, too,” she said.  “Let’s give it a try.”

“This time I will not drop you,” he said.  “That’s a promise.”

“I trust you, Hubby,” said Gravel. “What do we do first?”

“First of all, stand in front of me with your back toward me and have your arms straight down to both sides of yourself,” he said.  She did so.  He then said, “Now bend your legs a little where you stand and get ready to jump high.”  She did so.  He then put his hands to both sides of her hips, himself bending his legs to get ready to lift her.  Then he said, “One the mark.  Get ready.  Get set.  Go.”  And she leaped upward just as he lifted her upward.  And suddenly she was standing upon his shoulders, her self sure and steady in her sneakers.  “That’s the first part,” he said to her.

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“That was neat,” she said.

He then said, “I will now now spin you from a vertical position to a horizontal position.  Get ready, Lisa.”  His hands were on her feet now, that stood upon his shoulders.  And she gave herself to his instructions.  And suddenly she found herself horizontal above his head, his hands now holding her along her hips again.

“Neat,” she said.

Then he said, “I will toss you up a little way and catch you in your front in both hands.  What you need to do is to put your hands together in a ball and hold them tightly together.  Make sure that your hands are right in your very middle of your length.  I will grab a hold of you in your hands as you start to fall.  And I will hold you up in the air above my head with yourself in this same horizontal position.  She again yielded to his instructions.  And she did just what he told her to do.  And he caught her very safely.  And he now held her in the air above his head, his hands right over her hands at the part of her skirt that lay along the top of the pleats in the front.

“That’s neat,” she said in delights.

He held her up there like this and did not drop her.

“This is real neat!” she said with the great novelty of coed cheer leading.

Where their pairs of hands were joined were right up against her black and yellow pleats and above and in front.  This was a lot like in mixed pairs’ figure skating when the guy lifted up the gal and held her above himself with his hands up against her skating dress in the woman’s same place.   That always made Gravel vicariously delightful and a little envious for the lady skater.  Now it was happening for herself as a cheerleader with her special guy.  And this was for real.  She dared not tell her cheer leading partner right now what she was thinking.  He had to be thinking the same thing about his cheer leading partner of this late night.  In the magic of romance, she spread her legs out a little way where she was way up here.  Then his arms began to shake.  And her body began to shake in his arms.

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He was getting tired.  And he bent his knees, lowered her toward the ground, and gently set her back upon her feet in the sand dunes.

“There.  We did it, Lisa,” he said.  “How was it?”

“Cheer leading was never like this!” she said.

“We shall do this again sometime,” he said.

“We don’t dare,” she said.  And right after, she said, “Yes.  We will do that again!”

“I’d say, ‘Lots,’” he said.

“Always,” she agreed.

Then he said, “I read your story the other day,”

“The one about the boy boxer against the girl boxer?” she asked.

“Yeah.  Great story.  But you shouldn’t have written it where the girl knocks out the boy,” he said.

“We are women. Hear us roar,” she said, a patriot for her gender.

“If I wrote a story like that, I would have written it so that the boy knocks out the girl,”he said.

“You’re too old-fashioned to write stories in the modern world, Flanders,” she said.  “My idea is more up-to-date with readers than is your idea.”

“I can still whoop any woman in the ring, even myself being a small fellow,” he said.

“I am a tall gal,” she said.  “I think that if we got in the ring, that I would whoop you, Hubby,”

“I have a saying about the difference between men and women,” he said.  “Do you want to hear it?”

“Go ahead and tell me, Flanders,” she said in curiosity.

And he told her his clever little saying, “When a woman hits a man, the man says, ‘Did a fly land on my arm?’  But when a man hits a woman, the woman goes down and does not get up again.”

“Male chauvinist,” she called him.  He grinned in gloat.

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“Flanders, remember how Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs at tennis,” she said.

“Did Billie Jean King ever play against Jimmy Connors at tennis?” he asked her.

“She would lose that game,” said Lisa.

“And you would lose against me in the ring,” he said to her.

In fun for the both of them, Gravel hauled off and slugged him in his upper arm.  And she winced and said, “Ow,” and put her wounded fist into her other hand.  Then she said, “Flanders, at least say, ‘Ow,” too.”

“I feel just fine,” he said in truth.  “A woman can get hurt punching her guy.”

“I hit you just now pretty hard,” she said.  “And I am the one who got hurt.”

“A woman needs to be more careful with her punches,” said Flanders with a laugh.  Then he said, “I’ve got another joke to tell you.”

“Is this another saying like a battle of the sexes again?” she asked.

“No.  It’s one my brother taught me in my years at home yet.” he said.

“I’m game,” she said.  “Tell me the joke, Husband”

“Is your hand better now?” he asked first.

“My hand is better now,” she said.

“Get ready for your arm to hurt next,” he warned her with a broad grin.

“Go ahead and tell me your joke,” she said.

And he began, “Gravel, do you want a Hertz Doughnut?”

And she asked, “What’s a Hertz Doughnut?”

And he threw a gentle punch into the same place of her upper arm as she had in his upper arm.  And he said to her, “Hurts.  Don’t it?”

Her arm felt sore and a little bruised, but she laughed heartily both inside and outside.  So, too, did he.  “Clever, Hubby.  Very clever,” said Lisa

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He then reached out and began to rub her discomfort from her arm and did say, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she said.  “I kind of liked that,”

“You did?” he asked.

“It was positively frisky,” she said.  “And now I feel like getting frisky with you.”

“Frisky, you say?” he asked.

“Frisky and feisty and fun,” she said.

“And flirtatious,” he said.

“Which of us should start?” she asked.

“Beauty before age,” he said.

“We are both the same age,” she said.

“But we are not equal in beauty,” he said.

“I’m your fox,” said Lisa.

“And I am but a fox’s husband,” he said.  “Go first, Gravel,”

And Lisa Nickels tentatively punched him in his forehead with her bare-knuckled fist.  His head did not snap back.  She had not punched him hard enough to do that.  “Oh.  What did I do?” she asked.

He said, “Ooo.  Turn me on, woman!”

“Did that hurt?” she asked.

“I think so,” he said in truth.

“Yea!  I hurt my man!” cheered the cheerleader.

“Do it again, my wife,” he said.

“It’s your turn to punch me, Flanders,” she said.

“I defer my punch to you,” he said.

“Well.  All right,” she said.  “This is going to hurt you more than it will hurt me.”

“This will put me in the mood,” he said to her.

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And she threw another experimental punch—this one a little harder—into his belly.  He gave forth an exhalation.  That one had to hurt him a little.

“What do you make of that one?” she asked.

‘I love the way your hand looks at the end of your cheerleader sweater sleeve when it gets ready to throw a punch,” he only told her.

She raised her fist and looked at it.  “Kinky,” she said in approval.  “Now your turn to punch me.”

He said again, “I defer my slug to you.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Sock me,” he said lasciviously.

And the cheerleader went ahead and socked him in his temple with a roundhouse, this punch harder than her previous punches a little.  His head jerked to the side.  And he said, “Momma Mia.”

“I hit hard for a girl.  Don’t I?” she asked.

“I felt that one down my neck,” he said.

“Your turn, Flanders,” she said.  “Do hit me.  I need it.”

“I defer my slug to you,” he said.

“Why should I get all of the fun?” she asked.

“Woman, this is more fun for me that it is for you,” he said.

“You’re letting a woman beat you up,” she said.

“It arouses me,” he said licentiously.

“It arouses me, too, but I’m not the one getting hurt,” she said.

“As Ray ‘the Crippler’ Stevens put it on an interview on All-Star Wrestling, ‘I like to hurt people, and I like to get hurt.’” replied Flanders most aptly.

“You are not Ray Stevens, and this is not professional wrestling,” she said.

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“Knock me unconscious,” he said.

“If I did that, how would we finish our idyll together here in the sand dunes?” she asked.

“You better not knock me out in that case,” he said.  “But do try to anyway.”

“I threw three punches already, and you want a fourth punch,” she said.

“I felt from you a stiff jab and a cross and a roundhouse,” he said.  “Now is time for me to feel from you an uppercut.”

“You are a courageous man to stand there and wait for me to hit you below your chin like that,” she said.

“I am a husband stimulated by his wife,” he said.  “Slug me.”

“If I do that, Flanders,  I will not hold anything back this time,” she said.

“You will hit me hard?” he asked.

“I will hit you as hard as I can,” she said.

“Then I shall be ready,” he said.

“Ready for that?” she asked subtly.

“Ready for that,” he said to her in manifest reference.

And he stood there and put his hands on his hips and leaned his head forward.  And she said, “If I knock you out, must I wait till you come back to?”

And he said, “No.  In that case go ahead and do what you need to do with me unconscious,”

“What an idea, Hubby!” she exclaimed.

“But a capital idea at that,” he said.

“Capital,” she said.  “Very capital.”

“Hit me,” he said.

And the cheerleader wife began to swing her arm around her side in circles over and over to prepare her punch.  And she threw her uppercut.  And his lower jaw crashed into his upper jaw.  And he

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fell upon his back in the sand, his form all spread out like a fighter KO’ed and lying upon the canvas of the ring.  His eyes were closed.  And he was not moving where he lay.

In the heat of her stimulation Gravel said, “Promise me, Husband, that you will not turn your wife in for rape.”

Behold, he laughed and opened his eyes.  And he said, “For rape I will not turn you in, good Wife.  But for assault and battery, I may turn you in.”

“You’re conscious,” she said in surprise.

“And all ready,” he said.

“My, my husband, here I was punching you all over, and you are hurt here and there.  But I think that I am more sore than you are.  My hands and wrists and arms are sore, and you lie there in better shape than myself.  I quite wore myself out giving you punishment.  And you did not lay one hand upon me all this while,” confessed the cheerleader.

“A gentleman ought never to hit his lady,” said Flanders.

“Maybe that same lady ought not to have hit her gentleman,” said Gravel.

“The gentleman made her do it,” said Flanders.

“And she did do it most willingly,” said Lisa.

“There is one last thing I want us to do together out here alone together in our sand dunes that we have never done before,” he said.

“There is something that we have not done yet together as husband-and-wife?” she asked.

“And we will probably never do it together any time after,” he said.

“What is this thing that we can do together probably only this one time this night?’ she asked.

“I always wondered what you feel like with yourself dressed as the cheerleader all the time,” he confessed to her.

“You want to dress up as a woman cheerleader?” she asked.

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“I want to feel what you feel,” he said.  “I want to feel like my wife.”

“You want to feel like a girl,” she said.

“Uh huh,” he said with a nod of his head.  “You and I are the same height, and you and I are the same weight.  Your cheerleader uniform would fit me.”  Then he asked, “What do you say?”

“My outfit would fit you,” she said,  “And, Flanders, your outfit would fit me.”

“That’s a ‘Yes,’  Isn’t it?” he asked.

“Both ways, Hubby,” she said.  “You get to feel like a woman.  I get to feel like a man.”

“I can wear the skirt, and you can wear the pants,” he summed all of this up.

And the cheerleader and her husband took off their appropriate clothes and put on each other’s clothes for the magical shared moment of drag together.  She said, “So this is what it feels like to be you, Flanders.”

“And I know now what it feels like to be you, Lisa,” he said.

“Fascinatingly masculine,” said Gravel about her cross dressing clothes of the moment.

“Delightfully feminine,” said Flanders about Gravel’s pretty little cheerleader uniform in this only transgender fling.

Then, seduced to the utmost after a wild fling as husband and wife. Gravel and Flanders took off their drag clothes, and they did go on to consummate this late night’s romance together outside in the sand dunes under the crescent moon with consummation.

 

 

 

 

–

 

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CHAPTER XIII

The four who lived among the sand dunes were on their way to Marinette County Baptist Church for Sunday Evening Worship.  But this time, Gravel decided to ride in the flatbed trailer with the two unicorns.  And Flanders was alone in his Roadster Replicar.  “Having fun back there, girls?” called forth Flanders.

“What a way for a lady to come to church,” said Gravel in good fun.

“I get to ride with you back here this time, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Yes, Master,” said WhiteHouse.  “We three gals are having fun back here.”

“I miss you, Lisa,” Flanders said.

“We’ll be back together side-by-side again right when we get to church,” she said in affection.  “Thanks for missing me.  I miss you, too.”

“Master, what do you think that Pastor Preamble will preach on tonight?” asked WhiteHouse.

“I don’t know,” said Flanders.  “He tells only Deacon Doxology what he will will preach on ahead of time.”

“Mistress, what about you?  Do you know?” asked CasaBlanca.

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“No. I do not, CasaBlanca,” said Lisa.  “Pastor does not even tell his wife Emmy.”

“We of the flock have to wait till he begins before we find out what God would have him to preach to us each time,” said Flanders.

“I heard that Deacon Benediction sometimes gives Pastor good pointers about what to put in and what to put out in his sermon notes.” said Gravel.

“Pastor knows Scripture and doctrine way better than even our deacon does,” said Flanders.  “But our deacon was an English major at college, and he knows all about grammar in a way that Pastor does not.”

“Like the time that the deacon was out of town, and Pastor in a sermon pronounced the Greek goddess ‘Aphrodite’ with only three syllables and with the ‘e’ silent,” said Gravel.

“Our deacon is a learned reader,” said Flanders.  “He knows how to pronounce the name ‘Aphrodite.’”

“Master, remember when the deacon filled the pulpit that one day when Pastor was out of town?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Are we talking about when Doxology said that the shortest verse in the Bible was John 11:25 and how it read ‘Jesus wept?’” asked Flanders.

“Yeah,” said WhiteHouse.

CasaBlanca said, “Flanders, you at once raised your hand and corrected him.”

“Master, you told him that he meant John 11:35,” said WhiteHouse.

“Husband, right after that, you said that John 11:25 actually said, ‘Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life:  he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;’” bragged Gravel on Flanders.

“He apologized to the flock for that mistake and thanked me for having corrected him,” said Flanders.

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“It is easy getting two different references mixed up when they are similar and both verses are keynote verses in the Bible,” said Lisa Nickels.

“You and I both know that from our much memorizing together of Scripture verses and their references, Gravel,” said Flanders.

“Mistress, we’re there,” said CasaBlanca.

“We’re here, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

And Flanders pulled into the parking lot, parked in a place of two parking places, one behind another, and got out and opened the back gate and set up the ramp to help his wife out and to let the she-unicorns out.  And all four went into the church building.  Today both Pastor and the deacon were there once again as always.

And the following was the message that Pastor Repartée Preamble got from the Lord to preach to his flock for today’s Sunday Evening Worship:  “Good flock of God, let me read to you all about what the Bible calls ‘the works of the flesh.’  They are found in Galatians 5:19-21:  ‘Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:  of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’  There are a total of seventeen such works of the flesh in this list.  And the Devil has seventeen chief griffins in his griffin hierarchy.  Each chief griffin is in charge of each work of the flesh throughout the world.  That is, the Devil has a griffin in charge of adultery.  He has a griffin in charge of fornication.  He has a griffin in charge of uncleanness.  He has a griffin in charge of lasciviousness.  And so forth for all of the rest of this list which I have read to you this day.”  These chief griffins go out and tempt people to sin these sins.  These chief griffins tempt the lost to keep doing these sins over and over again.  These chief griffins even try to tempt the saved to go and try these sins for their first time in their life in Christ.

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And these chief griffins, like their master the Devil, ‘go to and fro in the earth and walk up and down in it.’  Where can they be found?  We people know.  They fly around in the skies above the earth.  Satan and his chief griffins and all of the rest of his griffins were kicked out of Heaven a long time ago and banished to the sky above the ground in this world we live in.  And they are still up there six thousand years later today.”

Pastor Preamble then said, “First I would like to preach on the sin of adultery.  We all know this to be the sin of marital infidelity.  This is sex outside of the bonds of marriage.  Either the wife is cheating on the husband, or the husband is cheating on the wife; or maybe both are cheating on each other.  God says in His seventh commandment, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’  You all know how I have had more funerals than I have had weddings.  I know what the Bible says about marriage and divorce and remarriage.  In Mark 10:11-12, God’s Word says this:  ‘And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.  And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.’  The Bible is abundantly clear about this.  It is for this very reason that I have had to turn down many weddings in my pastorate.  When a couple comes to me and asks me to marry them, I always ask them the question, ‘Have you been married before?’  And they say, ‘Yes.  But it didn’t work out.’  Then I ask them, ‘Is your mate still alive?’  And they say, ‘Yes.’  Then I say to them, ‘Then I cannot marry you.’  Then they say, ‘But why not?’  Then I show them these two Bible verses, and I tell them, ‘If I were to marry you two, you would both being living in adultery.’  Offended, they say to me, ‘That is the craziest thing I ever heard.  You’re a pastor.  You’re supposed to marry people.’  And they would storm off.  And I would never see them again.  As a missionary Baptist church planter, I am accountable to God as to how I serve Him in my ministry.  I seek to please God and not man.”

Then Pastor said, “Next I shall preach on the sin of fornication.  As you know, that is sex before marriage.  In the old days of high school it was a shameful thing when a girl got pregnant.  Often times

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she dropped out of school.  Nowadays, though, ‘everyone’s doing it.’  And, instead of marrying each other and then living together, couples now live together, then get married.  Or they live together and never get married.  This is called in its blunt truth, ‘shacking up.’  I call it as God calls it–’living in sin.’  They call it, instead, a much less harsh-sounding ‘living together.’  Such fornicators say, that if they live together for a while and it works out between them, that then they will know if marriage is right for them.  But the good radio evangelist Cal Thomas said that those who cohabit before marriage are very likely to have their marriages break up after.  In I Corinthians 6:18, God’s Word says, ‘Flee fornication.  Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.’  My dad used to brag upon prostitutes as being a part of ‘the oldest profession.’  I had two brothers go to Las Vegas when they were young men.  One of the brothers was a gambler, and the other brother was a moral and decent man who never gambled.  Well the one brother who gambled won big at the roulette wheel and then lost big at the roulette wheel.  And the moral and decent brother who never gambled went and discovered a call girl in Las Vegas.  And the good brother lost his innocence with a fling of fornication in ‘sin city.’  Though he came back home with all of his money, he was no longer pure.”

Then Pastor went on to preach, “Next I must talk about the sin of uncleanness.  We are to keep our bodies clean and free from sexual perversion.  The bodies of Christian men and Christian women are the temples of the Holy Spirit.  And the bodies of all men and all women are created in the image of God.  That means that God hates the sins of sodomy.  And sodomy is called ‘homosexuality’ (men with men) and ‘lesbianism’ (women with women).  In his good discretion, President Reagan called for abstinence among the American people.  But in his indiscretion, attorney general C. Everett Koop called for safe sex among the American people.  Where do you think that the epidemic called ‘Aids’ came from?  And how do you think that it is spread?   Even innocent people catch that disease.  This country is an immoral country, and God is judging this country with this disease of Aids.  There would

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be no such thing as Aids if one man stayed with one woman, in the bond of matrimony, all the days of

their lives.  And Planned Parenthood should be called ‘Banned Parenthood.’  And the American Civil

Liberties Union is uncivil.  And how dare they hand out contraceptives in the schools.  And kindergarten is no place to teach sex education.”

Pastor Preamble paused, then resumed his sermon of the day, “Next I shall talk about the sin of lasciviousness.  Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘lascivious,’ as ‘lewd’, ‘lustful.’  I can add to that the definition, ‘licentious.’  Let me tell you about a popular song of the world back in my day.  It was sung by Bobby Goldsboro and it was called ‘Summer (The First Time).’   ‘The first time for what?’ you might ask.  I hesitate to answer that.  It was about a young man seventeen years old and a young woman thirty-one years old.  They meet on a beach amid the waves and the seagulls.  The older woman tempts the young man.  He sows his oats with her.  His eyes are opened to the joy of sex.  And then the girl is gone out of his life.  He loses the woman.  And he remembers that first time for the rest of his life.  But his heart is sad.  He had found his happiness in the girl at the beach, and that happiness is gone forever.  His memories of that day are meaningless empty remembrances.  Life will never be the same for him.  He misses the woman for the rest of his life.  And his life is sorrow for now on.  He had done it with a woman, and now he has nothing for now on until the day of his death.  I tell you, ‘Make Jesus the God of your life.’  Christ will never leave you or forsake you.  And He will not lead you into sin.  And he will bless you in this life and reward you in the life to come.  A lover at the beach cannot do that for you.  Child of God, stay way away from lasciviousness.  It will turn and bite you.”

Pastor Repartée Preamble continued his sermon of the evening, “Next I shall preach upon the sin of idolatry.  In Old Testament days upon this Earth, mankind bowed down before images of wood or stone or metal.  These were called ‘molten images,’ and ‘graven images.’  Ignorant early man bowed down before these mere statues and prayed to them, sincerely believing these statues to be gods! They did not pause to think upon how a workman had gone to his workplace and with his hands had gone

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about and made this ‘god.’  This statue was a false idol, and this wicked man was committing false idolatry, and the true God was righteously jealous of all of these false gods.  These gods could not hear, nor see, nor speak, nor think, nor save, nor answer prayer.  They were, in essence, like unto their worshipers—just plain dumb.   We people still sin with idolatry today in the New Testament Earth, but we do it differently.  By definition, ‘an idol’ is ‘anything more important to a person than is God.’  Such idols include stars and athletes and money and the job and possessions.  You name it.  Wisconsinites, do not make false idols out of the Green Bay Packers, the Milwaukee Brewers or the Milwaukee Bucks.  Do not make false idols out of the U.W.G.B. Lady Phoenix or the Wisconsin Badgers football team or basketball team or the St. Norbert Green Knights.  None of these gods died for our sins.”

Then Pastor preached, ‘Next I shall talk about the sin of witchcraft.  There is no such distinction in God’s eyes as ‘good witches and evil witches.’  All witches are evil.  Any time a person gets involved supernaturally with the occult, that gets God’ attention.  A Satanist is involved personally with Satan.  And Satan is Jesus’s greatest foe.  God’s Word speaks out against all witches, all warlocks, all wizards, all sorcerers, all necromancers, all magicians.  And they are out there now in this twenty-first century.  In Exodus chapter seven, God’s Word tells us that the magicians of Egypt turned sticks into snakes.  I believe in this modern day that witches get together in the woods and sacrifice animals on the pyre to the Devil.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they do the same with people.  We hear reports of missing people.  I wonder if some of them have been sacrifices to the Devil by a group of witches. I firmly believe that the game of the Ouija Board is of the occult.  Do not go and play with the Ouija Board.

The Devil is behind it.   And, young people, stay away from Dungeons and Dragons.  That is the supernatural with the Devil, too.  It is a dark game.  Do not play it.  And I do not recommend watching the TV show, ‘Bewitched.’   Even in a sitcom, witchcraft is not a proper theme for entertainment in the eyes of God.”

Then the pastor went on to say, “Next I shall speak on the sin of hatred.  When I think of hatred,

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I think of radical Islam.  Their holy book ‘The Koran’ tells its Muslim readers, ‘Death to Christians!  Death to Jews!  Death to infidels!”  Death to Christians?  Are we Christians not the children of God?

Death to Jews?  Are not the Jews the people of God?  Death to infidels?  Does that not mean the whole rest of the world who are not Muslims?  The Bible speaks in Genesis 16:11 of these Arabs as ‘…he will be a wild man, and his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand will be against him;…’

Their god Allah is a false moon god.  He is really the Devil.  Their Allah wants his followers to die for him.  Their Allah wants his followers to kill for him.  Their Allah wants his followers to spread terrorism in the world.  The Muslims fight the world.  The Soonie Muslims fight the Shiite Muslims.  The Shiite Muslims fight the Soonie Muslims.  The Islamists have been fighting for centuries, and they will continue fighting for the centuries to come.  They see our America as the big Satan and Israel as the little Satan.  They believe that once America and Israel are destroyed, that then the Islamic messiah will come.  They believe in the worldwide spread of Islam and of conquering the world for Allah.  And El-Qaeda and Taliban are working for that right now and killing people as they do so.  All in hatred.”

Then the pastor preached, “Now is the time to speak of the sin of variances.  ‘What are variances?’ you might ask.  Variances are contentions and strife and discord.  Brethren disagree upon the doctrines of the Bible, and they become at variance with one another.  Brethren have differing personalities, and variances take place in church.   People have contrary characters, and they fall into variances outside of church.   A new convert and a veteran of the faith may fall into variance with each other.  The new convert may see his faith tested upon seeing a veteran in the faith exercise his liberty as a believer.  The veteran of the faith may feel resentment for his sacrifices that he makes for the new convert in Christ.  And they may fall into a variance with each other.  World War I was one big variance.  World War II was an even bigger variance.  And World War III, after we Christians are raptured up, will be the biggest of variances.”

Pastor Preamble then went on to his next topic, preaching, “Now I will share with you the sin of

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emulations.  ‘What are emulations?’ you might ask.  Emulations are jealousies.  Emulations are envyings.  Emulations are making oneself equal to another.  For example, your neighbor might come home with a nice new rowboat.  You like that rowboat.  You want for yourself a better rowboat.  You want to look better in the neighborhood than does your neighbor.  So you go and buy yourself a bigger rowboat than your neighbor just got.  For another example, your friend might adopt into his family a nice noble and gallant black stallion pet.  Everybody loves his new black horse.  You want to have something better for yourself so that everybody praises you even more.  So you go and adopt into your family a centaur with a black horse body and with a bow and arrow and quiver.  Now everybody is talking about your black centaur and no longer about his black horse.  This sin of emulations breaks the tenth commandment, which says, ‘Thou shalt not covet…any thing that is thy neighbour’s.’  Exodus 20:17.”

Pastor then went on to say, “Then there is the sin called ‘wrath.’  We all know what ‘wrath’ is.  Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines wrath as ‘strong, vengeful anger or indignation.’  People of wrath want to get even with any one who does them a wrong or who said something about them that they don’t like.  They return evil for evil.  They even return evil for good.  They do not usually reward good with good.  And they will never return good for evil.  In God’s Word in Ephesians 4:26, it is written, ‘…, let not the sun go down upon your wrath.’  In the next verse, in Ephesians 4:27, it is written also about wrath, ‘Neither give place to the devil.’  The key to resisting this sin is to forgive the one who wronged you or whom you thought to have wronged you.  In Ephesians 4:32 it says, ‘…, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.’  A wrathful man will never forgive, and a forgiving man will never be wrathful.  Wrath among family members has broken up many homes.  Wrath in the flock has often caused church splits.  And wrath between friends has broken up best friendships.  In II Corinthians 2:11 it is written, ‘Lest Satan should get an advantage of us:  for we are not ignorant of his devices.’  This says that forgiveness will guarantee that the Devil cannot

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get an advantage over us.”

Pastor paused, then continued, “Next I would like to speak on the sin of strife.  ‘Strife,’ as we know it, is contention and struggle and quarrel and fight.  The main cause of strife in Baptist churches across the country—and in other churches, as well–is personal differences among the people of the flock.  One man may have his head shaved, and another man might not like bald heads.  One man may have facial hair, and another man might think that facial hair is a sin in the eyes of God.  One person may come to church in a suit and tie, and he might look down on a man who comes to church in blue jeans and a plaid shirt.  One woman may obey the Scriptures and have her hair long, and she may disdain the woman who has her hair cut short.   Indeed it is not doctrine that is the cause for church closings so much as it is strife that comes up within the flock.  It is the best thing for a born-again believer to stand up against false doctrine and to make a stand for true doctrine.  But do not do so with the spirit of strife.  Do it in the spirit of love.  Good people, do not let Satan get the victory over Marinette County Baptist Church.  It makes him happy to see the flock bicker and argue and contend.”

Then Pastor Preamble went on to say, “Then there is the sin of seditions.  What are seditions?

Another word for this is ‘dissensions.’  In the Gospels of the New Testament, we read of a prisoner called ‘Barabbas.’  He was charged with the crime of sedition against Rome in Jesus’s days.  In this man’s sedition, there was also murder involved in his rebellion.  Jesus, at this time, was on trial for having done good.  And the ungodly chief priests and the elders, who all hated the Lord Jesus at this time, incited a mob to commit sedition against innocent Christ and to say, ‘Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!’  ‘What shall I do with Barabbas?’ the governor asked the mob.  And they all said, ‘Release Barabbas.’  And the governor went ahead to release Barabbas despite his own sedition and to go ahead and crucify the Lord Jesus, the prophesied Messiah.”

Then Pastor went on to preach further, saying, “Then there is the sin of heresy.  “Heresy,” defined, means, ‘any false teaching that contradicts the truths of the written Words of God in the King

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James Version Bible.’  For example, the Bible says, ‘Jesus is the only way to Heaven.’  But heretics say, ‘There are many ways to Heaven.’  For another example, the Bible says, ‘One cannot lose his salvation.’  But heretics say, ‘One can lose his salvation if he sins.’  For another example, the Bible says about mankind’s redemption after Jesus died on the cross, ‘It is finished.’  But heretics say, ‘No, it is by the cross plus works.’  Also, the Bible says, ‘The blood of Jesus shed for all and His glorious resurrection saves the souls of all men throughout all seven dispensations of time—both before the cross and after the cross.’  But heretics like Peter Ruckman and other so-called Bible scholars say, ‘No, salvation is different for mankind for different dispensations one from another.’  Perhaps the sneakiest heresy in Christendom today is false faith in another Jesus.  This ‘other Jesus,’ is a Jesus of their own understanding who is not the true Jesus of the Bible.  The Jesus of these heretics may not be the Deity, the Messiah, the Holy One, the One with Agape love, the suffering Lamb, the triumphant Lion, the Son of God, as the Bible says He is.  And these heretics cannot say of this ‘other Jesus,’ ‘Jesus saves!’”

Good Pastor Preamble continued, “Then there is the sin of envyings.  We all know what envy is.  It is like a small type of jealousy.  Literary people refer to envy as a ‘little green monster.’  For an example of envyings, in high school the girls who make the cheer leading squad are envied by the girls who do not make the cheer leading squad.  And high school varsity football players are envied by high school junior varsity football players.  At a grocery store, a cashier who makes more money is envied by a cashier who makes less money.  The same for the stock boys of that same grocery store.  Maybe even in Thursday Evening Visitation, those who win more souls to Christ might be envied by those who win less souls to Christ.  I pray that such envyings do not come upon the thoughts of us who go out and knock on doors.”

Then the pastor went on to preach, “And next is the sin of murders.  Many who live see murder as the greatest of crimes, as the most bad thing of bad things to do, as the thing that the Devil does.

The sixth commandment indeed says, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’  And there are many types of most horrible

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murders committed within families; that is, patricide, matricide, murder of a sister, fratricide, infanticide, abortion.  And there were also mass genocides committed by big oppressive and tyrannical governments where millions were executed.  Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany killed six million Jews in concentration camps.  Joseph Stalin of Communist Russia killed even more than did Hitler.  And Mao Tse-Tung of Communist China killed even more than did Stalin—and these victims were his own people.  And there were serial killers throughout history who committed the sin of murder many times over.  There was Jack the Ripper of London.  There was Jeffrey Dahmer of America.  There was America’s Unibomber.   There was the ‘Zodiac Killer.’  And do not forget the mass shooters who are coming out nowadays doing their murders at schools and public events.  And there are the Middle East terrorists and their murders of innocent people.  And there is the Mafia and the mob of Italy.”

Then Pastor Preamble said, “Then the sin of drunkenness.  Those who adhere to the political correctness of this day choose to call ‘drunkenness,’ instead, ‘alcoholism.’  They call it the ‘disease of alcoholism.’  But God calls it ‘the sin of drunkenness.’  Drunkards drink, lose their inhibitions, and cannot remember the next morning what they had done the night before.  The Bible says in Judges 13:4, ‘Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink,…’   God said this to the woman who would go forth and give birth to Samson.  And the Bible says in Leviticus 10:9, ‘Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee,…’  God said this to Aaron, the priest of the Lord.  And God says this to the people of this day of the two thousands.   The sin of drunkenness has ruined many families. It has caused people to lose their jobs.  It has made people disreputable.  It has become a problem addiction throughout the world.  It is wrong to drink beer.  It is wrong to drink wine coolers.  It is wrong to drink wine and whiskey.  It is wrong to drink hard liquor.  It makes women to become lushes.  And it makes men to become bums.  There is a popular proverb among people about drunkards.  It goes like this:  ‘First the man takes a drink; then the drink takes a drink; then the drink takes the man.’”

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Pastor then went on to finish his message this night on Sunday Evening Worship:  “And, last of all, I must speak of the sin of revellings.  What the Bible calls ‘revellings,’ we call today, ‘revelry.’  And ‘revels’ are ‘parties.’  But these kinds of parties are not the kinds that families have on holidays or other innocent family celebrations.  These kinds of parties that the Bible speaks against are wild parties.  Here the ‘life of the party’ is the hero.  Here, all are ‘party animals.’  And here take place all manner of immorality and promiscuity and indecency.  Such parties as take place among college students on spring break are among those that constitute these ‘revellings.’  Party people such as these have no real hope in this life and in the life to come.  They have, in their mind, only this life to live.  And their saying, deep down inside, is, ‘Eat, drink, and be merry.  For tomorrow we shall die.’  And they party all night long into the next morning to try to forget their hopelessness without Christ.  These revelers outwardly seem happy and look to be having fun.  Bur, inwardly, they are crying out for satisfaction that cannot come through parties.  Poor lost people.  Instead of getting right with God, they go and indulge all of their carnal desires with wild parties.  Often times, these are the people who get in trouble with the police.  And they brag to others about this by boasting, ‘Busted!’  And their excesses often lead them to an early death or to lifelong injuries or sicknesses.”

Thus the finish of another sound sermon at Marinette County Baptist Church.

After church let out, WhiteHouse asked, “Master, would you sit with me on the ride back home?”

Flanders looked at Gravel.  Gravel said, “I can drive this time.  I’m a good driver.”

“You’re a better driver than I, Wife,” said Flanders.  “You take good care of my car when you drive.”

“Mistress, you’ll be in the driver’s seat this time,” said CasaBlanca.

“I’ll be glad to sit with you in the trailer, WhiteHouse,” said Flanders.

“And me, too, Flanders?” asked CasaBlanca.  “Will you be glad to ride with me, too, in our

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trailer?”

“I would be glad to ride with the both of you in your trailer, good girl,” said Flanders.

And Gravel got behind the wheel of the Roadster Replicar, and the three others of this family climbed up onto the flatbed trailer.  The man sat down and stretched his legs out in front of him.  The two she-unicorns lay down on their bellies to both of his sides.  The man reached out his right hand and stroked the back of WhiteHouse.  And he reached out his left hand and stroked the back of CasaBlanca.

And all three were facing the back of the trailer, their view upon that which was behind them.  And Gravel asked, “Ready, guy and gals?”

They all said, “Yes!”  And she backed out of the church parking lot, careful not to hit any transporting animals or transporting vehicles, and then proceeded down the church driveway and out onto Highway 141 to go north.  It was a short ride home, but the four made a great time of fellowship out of it.

Gravel said, “I never knew before how much trouble that seventeen griffins can do.”

“It makes sense to me,” said Flanders, “seeing that those are the chief of the Devil’s griffins.”

CasaBlanca said, “Seventeen griffins all in charge of promoting globally the seventeen works of the flesh.  I’m glad that we don’t have to contend against them in battle directly.”

“Our six little griffins are plenty enough for me to have to deal with.   We four have our hands full just with our own six griffins,” said WhiteHouse.

“Those seventeen griffins that Pastor preached about could vanquish the four of us with one peck of their eagle beaks,” said Gravel.

“Our God is a merciful God,” said Flanders.  “He never gives His children more than they can deal with.”

“Only one Man is big enough to take on the chief griffin Satan,” said WhiteHouse.

“The man Christ Jesus, girl,” said Flanders.

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“And Christ Jesus can never lose that battle,” said Gravel.

“He can never lose any battle, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“He is Lord, girl,” said Lisa Nickels.

“He is God,” said Flanders in praise.

“Just think, guys,” said Gravel.  “There is coming a day when God will put Satan in jail in the bottomless pit, and he can never go around and do bad things anymore.”

“For a thousand years,” said CasaBlanca.

“The Thousand-Year Reign,” said WhiteHouse.

“For a whole millennium,” repeated Gravel what her pet unicorn said.

“Christ’s Millennial Reign,” repeated Flanders what his unicorn pet said.

“Then it gets better after that, as we all know,” said Gravel.

“When the thousand years end, Christ lets the Devil out of his prison, and the Devil wages his last war against God, and God puts him down into the lake of fire for ever,” said Flanders.

“For ever and ever,” said Lisa.  “And he and all of his griffins are down there and never coming back.”

“For ever and ever,” said CasaBlanca.

`           “What happens then, Master?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Yeah, Mistress.  What happens for us when the Devil is damned in Hell?” asked CasaBlanca.

“God makes a new Heaven and a new Earth,” said Gravel.

“And time as we know it ends,” said Flanders.  “And eternity as we don’t know it begins.”

“Then does everybody from then on live happily ever after?” asked WhiteHouse.

“The angels and the saints from then on live happily ever after with the Good Lord,” said Flanders.

“That’s great, Master!” said WhiteHouse.

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“That’s neat,” said CasaBlanca.  “Mistress, is that neat?”

“It is Heavenly,” said Lisa Nickels in reverie.

“I think that we are home now, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“So.  Here we are, back home again,” said Gravel.

And Gravel pulled off of the road and onto the wild field and parked the car and the trailer in the front yard between the road and the sand dunes.

And the four jumped out and ran on into the sand dunes and played keeper-and-unicorn games together in the dim light between sunset and dusk.  And when twilight came and gave way to night, the four turned in for the night to rest and to enjoy inactivity and to get ready for bed.  And when they went to bed, they reflected upon the goodness of the Lord of this day and the good things of the Lord of the day to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XIV

Gravel and Flanders were out back in the farthest back of their backyard of their hundreds of acres here in Beaver.  And back here was a vast field abundant with northern Wisconsin weeds of dozens of different types.  All was the same here in the middle of nowhere this day as it was the day that the newlyweds had moved in.

Flanders said this day, “Hmph.  Milkweeds,”

And Lisa said, “Goldenrods.  Hm.”  She then said, “Flanders, this reminds me of a game that I played when I was yet a little girl,”

“Was it a fun game?” asked Flanders.

“Yeah.  It was a fun game.  I made it up by myself and I played it by myself.  But it’s only for children.  I don’t play it now that I am grown up,” said the cheerleader.

“What was this game of yours?” he asked.

“I called it ‘All-Star Wrestling,’” she said.  “Mom and Dad had lots of these in their yard in the country when I was little.  And she reached out and touched a milkweed and said, “Lots of milkweeds.”

And she reached out and touched a Goldenrod and said, “Lots of goldenrod.”

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In conjecture, he asked, “Did you have it so that Goldenrods and Milkweeds ‘wrestled each other?’”

“Uh huh,” she said with a nod.  “Only lots ended up ‘dying in the ring.’”

“What a bad girl,” he said to her of her childhood memory.

“I had a lot of imagination going on in my head,” she said.

“How did this ‘wrestling’ take place alone with yourself?” he asked.

“Why, with them held in my hands,” she said.  “I would pull them up out of the ground, and I would set two teams of four upon the ground, and I would pick up one Milkweed and one Goldenrod and hold one in my left hand and one in my right hand.  There would be tagging off and two teams of four and a little place in Mom and Dad’s backyard that would be ‘the ring.’  And then I would proceed, the Milkweed against the Goldenrod.

“I bet that you knocked them one against another,” he said.   “Am I right?”

“Yes, Flanders,” she said.  “Exactly right.”

“And that would mean in your little game ‘one plant hitting another plant,’ and ‘one plant being hit by the other plant.” he said.  “That’s how this went for you in your games.  Wasn’t it?”

“You know me well, Husband,” she said.  “That was one of my things I did in my days as a little girl in the country.”

“That sounds more like a thing that a little boy might go and do,” he said.

“I was a tomboy when I was a child,” she said.

“Then what happened if the Goldenrod or the Milkweed got bent in this All-Star Wrestling?” he asked her.

“That would mean that he got injured,” she said.

“But what if it got broken and was in two pieces?”  he asked.

“That would mean that he was dead,” she said.

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“Sounds more like ‘all-star hitting’ than all-star wrestling.’” said Flanders Nickels.

“I knew how I could make plants hit each other, but I never went on to try to find out how plants could wrestle each other,” said the cheerleader.

“How could you tell who the loser was in your tag-team all-star wrestling?” he asked.

“When the whole team of four were all dead,” she said.  “That was the team that lost.”

“Then the team of four who still had some alive yet must have been the winner,” said Flanders.

“Correct, Flanders,” said Gravel.

“Who won most of the time in your all-star wrestling?” he asked.  “Was it the Milkweeds?  Was it the Goldenrods?”

“It was even,” she said.

“I did not know about your childhood games, Gravel,” he said with fascination.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“I would like to try my hand at this all-star wrestling of yours myself,” he said.

“Husband, you tease me,” she said.

“A grown-up must never outgrow good simple fun,” he said.

“You really mean it,” she said, most flattered.  “I haven’t done anything like this for years.”

He then began to pull out a group of Milkweeds and to set them down upon the ground in a pile of four; and then to pull out a group of Goldenrods and to set them down upon the ground in a pile of four across from them.  Then he stood up and said, “I bet that a girl…or a guy…could do this kind of thing with sticks.”

“Sticks, Flanders!” she said.

“Yep.  Real sticks of wood,” he said, thinking to have given her a new idea.

“I did this, too, with sticks, Flanders,” she said.  “I had sticks fighting against each other even more that I had plants fighting against each other.”

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“Where did you find so many sticks to do all of that?” he asked.

“Remember–Mom and Dad lived in the country when I was growing up.  We always had lots of sticks lying around everywhere,” she said to him.

He said to her.  “We two think alike.”

“Flanders, you know your woman,” she said to him.

“I wish also that I had known the girl,” he complimented her.

He looked down upon the Goldenrods and the Milkweeds that he had prepared upon the ground.  She saw him admiring them.  And she said, “I also had other species of plants that I made up in my little world, too, Flanders.”

“You made up other plants?” he asked her.

“Well, not really made up,” she said.  “But they were real plants in the countrysides that God had created.  And I went ahead and gave these plant types names that I made up of my own fancy.”

“Like a dichotomy,” he said, understanding her.

“My own names for species of flowering and non-flowering Wisconsin weeds,” she did say.

“Like a biologist,” he said impressed.

“Do you want to hear some of them, Husband?” she asked.

“I want to hear them all,” he said.

“I cannot remember all of them all these years later,” she said.  “But I can still remember most of them.”

“Tell me what you remember, O good wife,” he said to her.

And she recited from memory, “’Muellyens,’ ‘Antodeonosites,’ ‘Ammetryds,’ ‘Ammites,’ ‘Nepurtunes,’ ‘Groartinos,’ ‘Churnos,’ ‘Symmetroys.’ ‘Persymyans,’ ‘Renks,’ ‘Britoolites.’ and I cannot remember now about others.”

“Do you remember what those looked like back then?” he asked her.

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“Uh huh,” she said confidently and waxing nostalgic.

“We should go on a date together to our den and see if we can find them in some books,” he said.

“It would be fun to find out what those plants are really called,” she said in favor.

“How did your plants move around?” he asked her.  “How did your sticks walk?”

“That I never found out how to explain to myself,” she said.

“Leave such a thing like that unanswered for the cause of writer’s license,” he said to her.

“Or in my case, play-actor’s oversight,” she said.

He then picked up one Milkweed in one hand from the pile and picked up one Goldenrod in one hand from the other pile.

“Ooo, this brings me back to fifth and sixth grade,” said Gravel, relishing this moment with her husband.

“This makes me think like a fifth-grader and a sixth-grader.  I like it!” he said.

He then swung the two plants toward each other in his hands and knocked them once against each other hard.  Nothing happened.  “Nothing happened,” he said.

“Keep on,” she said.

He did it again.  This time the Goldenrod was bent.  And the Milkweed was yet intact.   “He’s hurt, Lisa,” he said.

“Do it again,” she said.

“Should I tag off?” he asked.

“Good thinking, Flanders.  You now know all about my old-time All-Star Wrestling,” she said.

He set the injured Goldenrod down upon the ground among its kind and picked up another plant of its kind from that same pile, one all ready to fight.  He had just “tagged off.”  And he proceeded with this replacement Goldenrod and the Milkweed.   He struck them against each other, and the Milkweed

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cracked into two pieces and was “dead.”

“What do I do now?” he asked.  “He died, and he had not time to tag off to one of his partners.”

“One has to improvise,” she said.

“I suppose that I pick one up randomly to replace the dead one,” he said in knowledge.  “Even though it is not an official tag.”

“That’s right, Flanders,” she said.

“More writer’s license,” he teased her.  And he picked up a Milkweed from its pile.

“More creative oversight,” she teased herself. And she and he laughed.

Just then their two she-unicorns came running up to them in fierce gallop of expedition.  Along WhiteHouse’s side was her master’s scythe, tied up and secure and ready for war.  Along CasaBlanca’s side, sure and steady was held her mistress’s battle sickle.

“Good unicorn allies, report,” said Flanders.

And WhiteHouse said, “Master, the time has come again for us griffin slayers to serve our Lord in battle.”

And CasaBlanca said, “They’re coming after us, and they are looking for blood.  Our six griffin demons want to take us from this Earth and from your family, O Mistress.”

Flanders said, “From which direction are our enemies of God coming, girl?”

And WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca looked at each other and said, “From behind us.”

Gravel spoke and said, “They must be coming from in front, Flanders.”

And Flanders quickly untied the ropes that held his scythe along his unicorn’s side.  Gravel did the same with her ropes and her sickle along her unicorn’s side.  And the two Christian warriors held their weapons for coming battle for God.   And the she-unicorns lowered their horns in preparation for battle.

“This time it’s for real, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

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“My unicorn horn had never been stained with blood before, my mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Nor my sickle likewise, O girl,” said Gravel.

To rally his troops, Flanders began to sing the hymn “Onward, Christian Soldiers” to God.

And they saw them.  There they were.  Aggressive and assertive and adverse. There were the six griffins, come back again, this time after having been rebuked by the Devil.  Evil red filled their eyes.  Evil gray filled their eagle parts.  Evil gray filled their lion parts.  Their beaks were ready to peck.  Their claws were ready to tear.  Their paws were ready to maul.  And this time they came with vengeance.  And they were screeching in curses upon God and upon God’s four soldiers.

Flanders did not stop singing the great Christian warfare hymn.  Now Gravel joined in.

And the six griffin demons lighted upon the ground before the four troops of good.  There stood Ruins.  There stood Wrecks.  There stood Crushes.  There stood Breaks.  There stood Destructs.  There stood Destroys.  These were the six who were the most responsible for keeping Gravel’s Dream of Dreams from coming true for her.

But Flanders and Gravel did not stop singing the great battle hymn.  And their two unicorn comrades began to join them in this song of God.   And the griffins were rattled.

One of the griffins said, “Enough already with that song.”

Another one of them said, “We will see what we do with such a hymn.”

Another one of them said, “Stop singing and fight.”

Another one of them said, “When we finish with you, you will never sing again.”

And another of them said, “Dead Christians can sing no hymns.”

And another of them said, “If you don’t stop singing that song of Jesus, we will see to it that you will sing it with the angels in Heaven before this day is done.”

Right away the four of God and this hymn “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” had the six griffins about to retreat in battle.

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But Gravel went on to say something foolish at the wrong time, her bitterness at them overcoming her good Christian sense, saying to them, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have to cry myself to sleep at night, worrying over my loved ones.”

This evoked a raucous medley of catcalls from the six griffins.  And this screeching of six griffins shut down the song of the four, drowning out the peace of God with the confusion of Satan.

And the four lost their spirit of hymns.  And the song ended.  And the edge now went to the griffins in this battle.

Flanders gave a glance of rebuke at Gravel.  And she knew that she had done wrong.  And she turned red with shame.

One of the griffins now broke this silence of the moment and said, “What do you say, fellow griffins?  Is now a good time?”

And a second griffin said, “Any time is a good time to go Christian-slaying,”

And a third griffin said, “I want to get the lady first.”

And a fourth griffin said, “I’ll take the guy.  He is a small fellow.”

A fifth griffin said, “I’ll get the she-unicorn, the one at the right side of the guy.”

And a sixth griffin said, “I want the she-unicorn who is at the right side of the woman.”

In an attempt to make up for her blunder in battle, Gravel waxed courageous, and she charged the griffin of the six who said that he wanted to get her.  Her sickle held high above her head in both hands, she assaulted this griffin in unbridled hurry.  And she swung this sickle down toward the head of this griffin.  This griffin panicked and turned and sought a temporary escape into the skies above her head.  The deadly sickle missed the head.  It missed the whole front of the griffin in fact.  But it did not miss the whole back.  Her back turned toward Gravel in her griffin flight, her back end was exposed to Gravel’s sickle.  And Gravel’s sickle passed down across the lower end of this griffin.  And, behold, the griffin’s lion tail was severed from her lion bottom.  Lo, the lion tail lying upon the ground, no longer

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connected to the griffin.  This griffin screamed bloody murder to Lisa Nickels.  And this griffin turned back to face Gravel now, herself now safe in the air from any more damage for now from the woman’s sickle.

In panic for his wife, Flanders cried out, “Lisa, run!”  And he ran up to put himself between her and her avenging griffin.

The two she-unicorns, disturbed by this actual violence, looked down upon the severed lion tail of the she-griffin.  WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca were astonied as they stared upon so odd a sight that lay upon the ground before them.  But they were soon glad in the Lord for that.  And focus drove out distraction within the hearts of the keepers’ pet unicorns.

Meanwhile, Flanders was swinging his scythe up at the griffin who was out of reach above him.

Yet, it seemed to him odd that this griffin, who had vowed death to Gravel for having cut off her tail, was not coming down out of the sky to go get her.  Surely one man with a scythe could not keep a griffin from seeking vengeance upon one who had so ignominiously wounded her in battle.  Griffins, as he had always known them, were by nature most vengeful when wounded, even if it meant charging her adversary who had wounded her and falling in battle herself.

But where were the other five griffins?

Gravel spoke and said, “Look over there, Flanders!”  She was looking away from the griffin above her and looking behind Flanders’s back.

Flanders dared turn away from this griffin to go look at the other five griffins.  They were all there, safe in the sky above the she-unicorns.  And they were aghast and glaring upon the severed lion tail of their wounded she-griffin comrade.  And they spoke among themselves quite in staunch reproach of her.

One griffin said, “Shame, shame, O Ruins!”

Another griffin said, “Ruins, you used to be one of us!”

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Another griffin said, “What a dishonorable thing to let happen to your griffindom, foolish Ruins!”

Another griffin said, “I’m embarrassed to look at you now, Ruins!”

And another griffin said, “A griffin without a tail is no griffin, Ruins!”

And in accord, the five griffins charged upon Ruins and chased her away from them in a type of excommunication.  Ruins had to flee her own comrades to save her life.  And she did not come back to this battle.  But the five other griffins came right back to this battle.  And they lighted upon the ground and stood before Flanders and his army.  The five griffins massed themselves in a line of five side to side.  Flanders proceeded to mass his three troops and himself in a line of four side to side.  And an interim passed by.  And in that delay, Flanders paused to think to himself the meaning of all the strange things that had just happened in this their first battle where blood was shed.  A griffin lost her tail to his wife’s sharp sickle.  That griffin was disgraced.  The other griffins became that griffin’s foe.  That griffin was sent away in shame.  And one less griffin remained for the four Christian warriors to fight.

All because of a tail.  Their griffin pride must center all on their lion tails.  If that griffin had lost a head or an eagle leg or a lion paw or a wing in battle, that griffin would have been extolled and honored and surely not forsaken.  But the lion tail?  Yes, Flanders and his Christian warriors must go after those griffins’ lions tails.

And the commissioned leader of this army of griffin-slayers for Christ spoke and said, “Gravel, WhiteHouse, CasaBlanca,  as you see me to do, even so do likewise.”  And Flanders charged the griffin who was closest to him in the line of griffins, his scythe raised above his head.  The griffin stood her ground before Flanders, and she kept her face toward him, and she was prepared to attack him with a peck of her beak about to jab his face.  Suddenly he swung his scythe straight down toward her from above.  Agile, she darted her eagle head and all of the rest of her off to the side, avoiding the scythe blade with all of her vital parts.  But in this feint, she unwittingly put her lion tail in a compromising

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disadvantage behind herself.  Flanders’s sharp scythe swiped along her back, missed the vital parts of her back, and crashed down upon the beginning of her lion tail at the bottom of her back.  She screeched in shock.  She looked down behind herself and grew faint.  Her lion tail had been cut off from her body by Flanders’s scythe.  This was the griffin Wrecks.

“Wrecks,” called forth one of the griffins.  “Et tu?”

“Behold a freak among griffin kind,” rebuked another griffin.

A third griffin hissed through her closed beak at her.

A fourth griffin turned her back toward her and would not give comment.

“Griffins all, it’s still I,” said Wrecks.  “I couldn’t help what happened to me just now.”

Four as one, they all assaulted this second such disadvantaged griffin and drove her away, herself fleeing battle in the skies.

The four warriors for Christ understood Flanders’s new strategy.  “We must go after the tail,” said Gravel.

“The tail,” said CasaBlanca.

“The tail,” said WhiteHouse.

And the four remaining griffins came back to resume this battle of evil vs. good.  And good fought evil.  Now it was four against four.

Flanders gave battle commands, saying to the two unicorns, “Code Ace.”  And they performed the strategy “Code Ace.”  The she-unicorns took on one griffin, turned her around, and forced her back toward the man with the scythe.  This was the she-griffin Crushes.  The griffin lashed out with her beak toward WhiteHouse, but WhiteHouse batted that beak away with her unicorn horn.  This griffin went on to grab a hold of CasaBlanca around her side of her neck with her eagle talons.  But the she-unicorn extricated herself from the griffin’s grip by knocking her unicorn horn down hard upon the upper part of the eagle leg that held her at its claws and breaking that hold.  Suddenly Crushes felt a queer and

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unusual sensation at the end of her lion form.  She panicked.  She turned back.  There stood the man, his scythe in his hands.  There was blood upon the blade of his scythe.  She did not look upon the ground.  She knew what happened.  It happened to her this time.  Crushes dared to look upon her cut-off tail lying by itself upon the weeds.  And she gave forth a terrible squawk.   And she fled battle before the three others could drive her away from them.

Now it was four soldiers of Christ against three griffins of Satan.

Flanders then said, “Soldiers of the Lord, Code Deuce,”

And the three she-warriors went ahead to execute Code Deuce.  The she-unicorns came up to the griffin Breaks, and Lisa Nickels stood by, ready to strike with her sickle.  And Flanders kept the other two griffins busy with himself and his scythe.  In this battle tactic, WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca began to run circles around Breaks where she stood.  Being a seasoned warrior, Breaks sought to ever keep her eyes upon her foes in battle.  But to do this, she had to spin around in circles where she stood as her assailants ran circles around her.  And this went on for a while.  The unicorns got dizzy.  But the griffin got so dizzy as to not be able to stand straight and sure.  Then, according to battle strategy, WhiteHouse ran off from the griffin Breaks one way, and CasaBlanca ran off from the griffin Breaks another way.  And Breaks stood there, disorientated and in a daze and not able to defend herself.  And as the griffin stood there, she did not see Gravel with her sharp sickle.  And Gravel said, “Here goes, Flanders!”  And Lisa swung her sickle down upon Breaks’s tail and did cut it quite off.  Even in a stun, this she-griffin knew what had just happened to her.  And in hasty flight, Breaks stretched out her great eagle wings, lifted up into the sky with struggle, and flew off with trembling wings away to safety.

Now it was four to two in favor of the forces of good.

Flanders gave forth battle commands, “Code Trey.”

The remnant of the six-griffin army began to back away.  They furled their lion tails up upon their bottoms where they stood.  They were utterly discombobulated.  And they were afraid.  And they

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were on the verge of fleeing battle, not wounded.  This was good.  For Flanders’s Code Trey worked best with fleeing griffins.

Destructs spoke and said, “No scythe is going to cut my tail off!”

And Destroys said, “Nor any sickle, my tail, woman!”

Flanders said, “It shall be neither scythe nor sickle, Destructs, Destroys.”  This Code Trey depended upon the unicorns, and not the man and his woman, to execute.

“I’ve had enough,” said Destructs.

“I have to get out of here,” said Destroys.

“Right away!” said Destructs.

“Like now!” said Destroys.

And the two last she-griffins began to lift up off of the ground.  And WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca each pounced.  Flanders’s she-unicorn landed her two fore hooves upon the lion tail of one of the griffins.  And Lisa’s she-unicorn landed upon the lion tail of the other griffin with her two fore hooves.  The griffins in flight were balked from escape.  And they panicked.   And they flapped their wings harder.  And they forced their superior strength over the unicorns.  And they broke free.  And there arose a great pair of sounds of rending.

Destructs screeched out in dismay, “Curses!”

And likewise said Destroys, “Doom!”

And they at once flew off up into the skies in great terrors.  Their bottoms were now devoid of tails.  And the four Christian soldiers looked upon these two tails there upon the ground.

“Amen, my comrades?” asked Flanders.

“Amen!” said the three others.

They had won a real griffin battle!

“Let us pray and give God the glory,” said Flanders Nickels.

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And the four of God gathered around in a circle in this wild field of flowering and non-flowering weeds, and they had a most effectual and fervent prayer meeting.

Then Gravel spoke and said, “Well, I suppose that now they will never come back.”

And CasaBlanca said, “Now they will leave your family alone, Mistress.”

And WhiteHouse said, “We licked them, Master.”

But Flanders Nickels said, “We have merely won a battle.”

Lisa asked, “Surely now my family will listen to me when I tell them of the Good Saviour.”

Flanders said, “Our griffins that we fought today will surely be back talking to your loved ones tomorrow, O Lisa.”

“That cannot be!” she exclaimed.

“They have not their tails,” said CasaBlanca.

“Surely they will not do the Devil’s work without their tails now, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“All griffins fear the Devil most of all of their kind,” said Flanders.

“What do you think is going to happen, Flanders?” asked Gravel.

“Satan is going to yell at his six griffins for their loss in battle.  They will have been officially rebuked.  And they will lose their rank.  And they will have to get their rank back upon themselves with a victory in battle.  That battle will have to be against us.  And they will, as the saying goes, ‘fight like devils.’  And when they come—hear you me—they will not flee in that battle.  And they will come with the fury of Hell below.  Woe unto any man or woman or unicorn that will be in their way!”

“There will be another battle,” said Lisa in consternation.

“And we could lose that battle, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“We could all be killed,” said WhiteHouse in understanding.

“Would that we had not cut off all of their tails,” lamented Gravel.

“We did cut off all of their tails, and we live yet because of it, my wife,” said Flanders Nickels.

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“O Mistress,” said CasaBlanca, “remember your family.”

“Yes, O Lisa,” said WhiteHouse.  “Let not your spirit faint.  We have a family to fight for.”

“Be courageous, my Gravel,” said Flanders.  “The griffins lost first in our battle of words.  The griffins then lost second in our battle with blood.  And they can lose third in our battle to come unto death.”

Waxing brave, Lisa “Gravel” Nickels asked, “What should we do with all of these ugly griffin tails lying around in our yard way back here?”

“We can bury them,” said Flanders Nickels.

And Gravel and her three allies were encouraged and exhorted in the Lord.  And the spirit of griffin-slaying came back strong in the heart of the cheerleader.

And the family of four went ahead to bury six dismembered griffin tails here where the goldenrods and the milkweeds grew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XV

Flanders and Gravel were alone together out in the sand dunes of late summer afternoon.  They were kissing and hugging and rolling around in the sand as happily-married husbands and wives do.
“It is great to be romantic, Flanders,” she said.

“And it is great to be young and romantic,” he said.

“They say that beauty is only skin deep, but there is nothing wrong with my man’s good looks,” said Gravel.

“And you will never lose your foxy looks, even when we grow old together,” he said.

“None of the unicorns are watching.  Are they, Flanders?” she asked.

“We won’t do out here under the sun what we did the other day under the moon,” he said.

“No.  We won’t go that far,” she said.  “But unicorns don’t understand ‘making out,’ like we do.”

“They’re animals,” he said.  “They don’t do the kinds of things that we do together, Lisa.

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They think themselves to be sensible.”

“Remember that first hug we had when CasaBlanca was around to see us do that?” she asked.

“Uh huh,” he said with a laugh.  “She came up to me and boxed my ear with her fore hoof.”

“How fast you slumped to the ground,” she said.  “My wonderful new boyfriend.”

“I did not get knocked out,” he said.

“You were knocked out, Husband,” she said.

“I guess I was,” he said.

“My unicorn never saw people hug before,” said Gravel.  “And she thought to protect me from any ‘further danger.’”

“And when I came back to, my first thought was that this wild and crazy unicorn were a jealous suitor of yours,” said Flanders.

“She was not jealous.  She was afraid for me,” said Gravel.

“I am in your debt for going to bat for me and how you scolded your beloved unicorn right then,” said Flanders.

“She needed to understand that a hug in your arms was the safest place for her mistress to be,” said Lisa Nickels.

“She quickly understood, and she apologized to me, and she lowered her unicorn in deference to me,” said Flanders.  “And I forgave her, and we were great friends ever since.”

“She even let you touch her unicorn horn, O Flanders!” she said.

“She proffers her horn for me to stroke all the time now,” he said.

“That was her first such homage to any stranger,” said Lisa.

“We strangers to each other became instant friends to each other that moment she let me touch her horn,” said Flanders.

“And she loves you as family now,” said Gravel.

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“And CasaBlanca is family to me now, too, with all of the love that goes with family,” said Flanders.  “And, talking about awkward moments with family, Gravel, remember our first kiss at my place?”

“Oh my.  I do, Flanders,” said Lisa.  “All unicorns think alike.”

“We were in my apartment watching a rerun of ‘Lassie,’ on TV,” he said.  “WhiteHouse was in the dining room in the next room.  And she was looking at the both of us as we sat on the sofa with our arms around each other’s waist.  I said, ‘Lassie is a beautiful dog.’

You asked, ‘Am I a beautiful woman?’

And I said, ‘You are the foxy lady of my life, Gravel.’

You asked me, ‘Do you really mean that?’

And I said, ‘I surely do, girl.’

And you said, ‘Prove it.’

And I went and proved it, and I leaned toward you and kissed you even though WhiteHouse was right there to see me do that.”

“And what she went and did when she saw you go ahead and kiss me like that,” said Lisa Nickels.

“She leaped to her feet, darted into our living room, and slammed her horn on top of my head.” he said.

“As if her own master were the bad guy,” said Gravel.

“I saw stars,” he said.

“But you were not knocked out,” she said.

“Correct.  That time I was still conscious,” he said.

“Your own pet unicorn thought that she was protecting me,” said Lisa Nickels.

“I tell you.  A guy can’t win in a house full of women,” he said with a laugh.

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“What an eye-opener that was for me, too, Flanders,” said Gravel.

“But you went to bat for me there, too, milady,” he said.  “I saw you get up from the sofa and march right up to my WhiteHouse and dare to slap the side of her unicorn horn with your open hand..”

“I figured that if I had gotten mad at my unicorn for having hit my man on the head, then I would get mad at my man’s unicorn for having hit my man on the head, as well,” said Gravel for the cause of Flanders Nickels.

“At once I fell in love with you all the harder for that, Gravel,” he said.

“I loved my new boyfriend,” she said.  “And I love him all the more as my husband now,”

“WhiteHouse looked at me like a dog whipped, and yet I told her to apologize to my new girl,”

said Flanders.

“And she looked at me and said, ‘I am sorry, Miss Peters,’” said the cheerleader.   “And then I gave her a look.  And she understood, and she said to you, Flanders, ‘And I am sorry, my master.’”

“And she understood from that day on that a kiss was not a threat or an act of violence.” said Flanders.

“And we became a threesome from that moment on,” said Lisa.

“And remember when we both introduced our beloved unicorn pets to each other?” asked Flanders.  “Remember our doubts together that WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca would get along?”

“Yeah.  “We were wondering how that would go,” she said.

“They took one look at each other that first time, and, even before they spoke, they fell into instance accord with each other,” said Flanders.

“Your unicorn stamped her fore hooves upon the ground outside.  My unicorn stamped her fore hooves upon the ground outside.  And at once they ran off to the back yard and played unicorn games with each other,” said Gravel.

“They still love to play games together here years later,” said Flanders.

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“This petting is fun once again, Husband,” she said.

“When we pet our unicorns, that’s one thing, Wife.  But when we pet each other, that’s another thing,” he said.

“Not every husband is blessed of God with not only the prettiest girl he has ever seen, but with that prettiest girl in the prettiest outfit worn by any girl,” he said to her in ardor.

“What a guy you are, Flanders,” she thanked him.

“What a cheerleader you are, Lisa,” he said to her.

“Flanders, I once knew a woman who was prettier than I am,” said Gravel.

“Prettier than you?” asked Flanders.  How can such a thing be?”

“Yeah, Flanders,” said the cheerleader wife, “and her outfit was even prettier than my outfit.”

“If there was such a woman as this woman that you claim to have seen, then that girl must be immortal,” he exclaimed in doubts.

“She was an angel,” said Gravel.

“A she-angel?” he asked.

“She called herself ‘She-Angel Elysium,” she said.

“She-Angel Elysium,” he said in spoken thoughts.   No mortal woman could be all that Gravel had said about her.

“She was a blonde,” said the brunette wife.

“A blonde who is as pretty as an angel?” he said.  “I doubt that, my wife,”

“A blonde who was an angel,” said Gravel. “You would agree with me if you had seen her, too,”

“And this angel was wearing something more magical than a cheerleader’s uniform?” asked Flanders.

“Uh huh,” said Gravel with a nod of her head.

“What was she wearing?” he asked her.  He was getting curious and believing now about this

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this girl.

“She was wearing a pom and dance girl uniform,” proclaimed Gravel.

“I’ve seen some awfully stunning pom and dance girl uniforms at the high school gymnasiums and the high school stadiums,” said Flanders.

“This pom pom girl uniform was the best,” said Gravel.

“And you say that it was better than your own black and yellow as a cheerleader-for-Christ?” he asked.

“Indeed she was attired in glistening white and glossy black and glittering silver,” said Lisa Nickels.“

“A pom pom girl,” he said.

“A pom pom girl for Christ, Flanders,” said Lisa.

“Whoa!  She sounds like quite the lady,” said Flanders.

“God used her to lead me to Christ,” said Lisa Nickels.

“Where were you that you found a blonde she-angel such as this Elysium?” asked Flanders.

“On a search for God to a place in the northern-most coasts of Upper Michigan,” said Lisa.

“Marquette?” he asked.

“North of Marquette,” she said.

“In Lake Superior itself?” asked Flanders.

“Upon an island called, ‘Bethel.’ in Lake Superior,” she said.

“’Bethel,’ by definition, means ‘house of God.’” he said.

“No wonder I saw the things that I saw up there,” said Gravel.

“You saw things up there in Bethel?” he asked.

“Things of God,” she said to him.

“I never heard of this island in Lake Superior,” he said to her.

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“It’s not there now,” she said.  “And it was not there before.”

“How did you get to this island?” asked Flanders.

“CasaBlanca gave me a ride from home to Marquette way up there, Flanders.  And we came to Lake Superior and could go no farther,” said Lisa Nickels.

“I bet God found a way for you to go farther,” said Flanders.

“Uh huh,” said Gravel.  “When CasaBlanca and I were looking out onto the big cold lake, we could see a little island just a few miles north or where we were.”

“Was that where you were supposed to go?” asked Flanders.

“It surely was, Flanders,” said Gravel.

“How could you tell?” asked Flanders.

“Because a still small voice said to me inside my head, ‘Go to this island that you see before you now, My girl,’” said Gravel.

“God was calling you to Him,” said Flanders.

“It was the Holy Spirit talking to me, and I was not even saved yet then,” said Gravel.

“What did you do then?” asked Flanders.

“What else can a girl do when God speaks to her than to wait upon God?” asked Gravel.

“Did CasaBlanca have anything to say when this was taking place?” asked Flanders.

“She said, ‘Let us wait upon the Lord, O Mistress,’” said Gravel.

“She’s a wise unicorn, like her mistress,” said Flanders.

“A girl being led by God must take heed and pay attention,” said Lisa

“Then what happened?” he asked.

“CasaBlanca said to me, ‘Mistress, I see a white winged horse.’” said Gravel. “I looked out unto the skies above this Great Lake; then I saw this white winged horse for myself, too.  This horse shone with a whiteness from God.

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“Winged horses are marvelous creations of God,” said Flanders.

“CasaBlanca said to me then, ‘Mistress, could this be Pegasus?’” said Gravel.

“Mythology says that Pegasus made the stream Hippocrene to come forth from Mount Helicon with a blow from his hoof,” said Flanders.

“Mythology is mythological,” said Gravel.

“But this winged horse coming to you then was real and no myth,” said Flanders.

“God works in mysterious ways,” said Gravel.  And she continued giving the testimony of her salvation:  “This winged horse then came up to us and did light upon the ground where we stood.  CasaBlanca bowed her head in honor.  I went ahead and curtseyed in my cheerleader uniform.  And this winged horse gave forth a neigh, then said to me, ‘Miss Lisa Peters, I am come from Bethel unto you, and am sent unto you to bring you to Bethel.’  I and CasaBlanca looked at each other.

‘I’ll be okay, girl,’ I said to her.

She said to me, ‘Mistress, you will be okay, because you are in the middle of the will of God.’      And I mounted this winged horse.  I then asked him ‘What is your name, that I may do you honor?’

And he said, ‘My name is “Malachi,” which, being interpreted, is “messenger of Jehovah.”’

‘I shall await you, good mistress,’ said CasaBlanca.

‘I shall come back to you, good girl,’ I told her.

And just like that, Malachi the messenger lifted me up into the skies, and we began to fly above the waters of Lake Superior.  And he said to me, ‘Fair young Lisa, you will meet my mistress.  She will be dressed in spandex of black and white and silver.  Listen to her words.  Hear her sentences.  Take heed to her message.  She is called of God to lead you to Christ.  As I answer to her, so he answers to God.  Amen and amen.’

I then asked, ‘Malachi, what is her name that I may do her honor?’

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And he told me, ‘Her name is “Elysium,” and she is a she-angel.’

‘She-Angel Elysium,’ I said.

‘Verily the one,’ he told me.

And then we were there.  I saw before me an island full of little evergreen trees.  I asked him, ‘Is this where your mistress lives?’

And he said, ‘It is, good Lisa.’

‘It looks like a Christmas tree farm,’ I said.

‘It is a Christmas tree farm,’ he said to me.

‘A Christmas tree farm in summer,’ I said to him.

‘Is it beautiful to you, Miss Peters?’ he asked me.

‘Oh, it is, Malachi.  It truly is,’ I said.

‘It is even more beautiful in the winter,’ he told me.  Then he lighted upon the ground in the midst of these little coniferous trees.  We were in a little field surrounded by these Christmas trees.

A little shy with all of these things going on, I asked him, ‘Shall I dismount?’

‘You may dismount,’ he said to me.  And I got off of the winged horse, and I looked around.  I saw no angel woman yet.  I could see above these trees from here in the open field.   He then spoke and said to me, ‘My mistress approaches.’  And I stood up straight and tall, ready to meet a real angel from the Lord.

And, behold, from behind a bunch of Christmas trees, came out a beautiful blonde woman.  She had long, straight blonde hair with full bangs across her forehead.  Her face was a healthy white.  Her eyes were brown and shone with the light of God.  Her jaw was broad.  The curve of her face accentuated her allure.  Her teeth showed in her smile.  She looked like an angel of God.  I never saw a female angel before. I watched her come up to me, my tongue dumb.  And when she stood before me, it surprised me that she were no taller than myself, but it did not surprise me that she were slim like

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myself.

Then she spoke to me, saying, ‘Lisa “Gravel” Peters, behold the pom and dance girl for Christ.’

Whooo, Flanders, what this angel had on!  Would that I could wear it myself!  I was jealous of her for what she had her female form covered with.”

“Was it desirable?” he asked.

“For a man to see her, he would sell his soul.  For a woman to see her, she would sell her cheerleader uniform,” declared Gravel.

“Was it all one piece?” asked Flanders.

“It was a sleek and shiny dress,” said Lisa

“I ask you.  Do not keep me waiting, good Lisa.  Tell me more about the pom and dance girl’s dress,” he said to her.

And she went on to say, “Shiny white was upon the round collar and upon the puffed shoulders and upon the bodice on top.  And shiny black was upon the bodice on the bottom and upon the long sleeves at the bottom and upon the entire skirt.  The white above and the black below on both the bodice and the sleeves were divided by shiny silver spangles in diagonal lines.  On the bodice these lines of silver spangles formed a ‘V’  across the front.  And on the long sleeves these lines of silver spangles formed a ‘V’ along the sides.  At the ends of the black sleeves were another ‘V’ of silver spangles above and below that stretched over the hands, and a loop therein was wrapped around the middle finger.  And as for the skirt portion, it fanned out at the hips in shiny black down nearly to the knees.  And, once again, there was a ‘V’ of silver spangles—this lining the bottom of the single flounce of skirt.  The waistline itself was a ‘V,’ but with no silver spangles therein.  And in back, from top to bottom, was the longest zipper you ever saw.  And she had black and white ribbons in her hair.  And she had on transparent sheer tights.  And she had on black and white saddle shoes.”

“Why, a girl like that would likely make a man to forget God,” said Flanders.

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“She made me kind of forget the Lord,” said Gravel.  “I have to confess to that.”

“Did she say anything to you then?” asked Flanders.“

“Not anything more at first,” said Lisa.  “But then this siren of an angel looked up to Heaven, and she prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, would You endue Your pom pom girl’s hands?’  She held her palms up when she prayed this.  Behold, big white and black pom poms suddenly appeared in her hands.  And she went on to shake these pom poms with the sound of swishes that all cheerleaders like myself know about.  Then she performed a pom pom dance before me.  Yet as I watched, I saw not kicking up of legs, not cartwheels, not arms akimbo, not pirouettes, not even a shaking of her hips that pom and dance girls do in the gymnasiums and in the football fields in high schools that you and I know about.  What I saw this pom and dance girl for God do was things like hand springs and walkovers and somersaults that were tucked and somersaults that were piked and round offs. And when she was done she finished her dance with sticking her landing,”

“That sounds more like women’s gymnastics, Lisa,” said Flanders.

“It was women’s gymnastics that this pom pom girl danced before me.  She was performing  tricks that were a part of the floor routine,” said Gravel.

“But with big pom poms,” he said.

“Yes, Flanders.  She was shaking her pom poms all the while,” said Gravel.

“Then what happened after that?” asked Flanders.

“Then she said, ‘My name is She-Angel Elysium, and I am the pom and dance girl for the Lord.’” said Gravel.

‘Glad to meet you, She-Angel Elysium,’ I said to her.

Then she went ahead and curtseyed before me and said to me, ‘Nice cheerleader outfit, Gravel.’

I said, ‘Why thank you, She-Angel.  God gave it to me.’

And she said, “God is a good God.’

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‘She-angel,’ I said.  ‘Can I ask you a question?’

“I have awaited you to come and ask me a question, Lisa,’ she said.

“You know God.  Don’t you?’ I asked her.

“I do know God,’ she said to me.  ‘I am one of His angels.’

“I myself do not know God,’ I said to her.

‘I thought so, Lisa,’ she said to me.

‘I would like to get to know God like you do,’ I said.

‘I am a pom pom girl second, and I am a soul winner first,’ she declared to me.

That made me feel good. Then I asked, ‘Is God in this place?’

‘He is in all places in Heaven and in Earth,’ said this she-angel.

‘And he must be here, too,’ I said.

“He is more here than He is on Earth.  He is less here than He is in Heaven,’ said Elysium.

‘Your winged horse that brought me here said that this island is called “Bethel.”’ I said to her.

‘“God’s house,”’ she said to me in translation.

‘It is truly divine, like God Himself must be,’ I said.

‘His magnificence of deity in His regal glory far exceeds my comeliness as a she-angel.’ she all of a sudden said to me.

It was then that I realized that I was a sinner going to Hell.  She said to me, ‘Pretty Gravel, thoughts trouble your face.’

And I said, ‘I cannot keep from going to Hell and never seeing you again and never seeing God the first time, O she-angel.’

But she said, ‘I have hope for you, comely Gravel,  I shall not lose you here in your visit to Bethel.’

“I cannot save myself, She-Angel,’ I said to her in dismay.

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‘Jesus saves,’ said the she-angel two words.  I found hope.  She then said, ‘I see faith coming to your face now, Gravel.’

‘I can still end up in Heaven,’ I said.  ‘Can’t I?’

And she said, ‘The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.’

I looked around at this paradise of the far north.  I said ‘This Bethel is a beautiful place of God.’

‘Jacob had a Bethel of his own,’ she said.

‘Jacob?’ I asked. ‘Was he that man in the Bible?’

‘Indeed, Lisa,’ she said.  ‘He was one of the patriarchs.’

‘Was his Bethel anything like your Bethel?’ I asked her.

‘It was the same, but it was different,’ she said to me.  ‘His was in the place later called Israel.  Mine is here in Upper Michigan.’

‘Does the Bible talk about Jacob’s Bethel?’  I asked her.

She then put down her pom poms, raised her palms upward to Heaven, and prayed, ‘Lord, would you fulfill my hands?’

And a big book appeared upon her pair of hands.  It was the Holy Bible.  And she opened it and said, ‘Fair young Gravel, allow your angel to answer your question.’  And she searched the Scriptures and said, ‘Here it is,’ and said, ‘It is written in Genesis 28:10-22 the following:  “And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.  And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.  And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven:  and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.  And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac:  the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south:  and in thee

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and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.  And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said,  Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.  And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!  This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.  And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.  And he called the name of that place Beth-el, but the name of that city was called

Luz at the first.  And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God:  And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house:  and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.”’

‘She-Angel Elysium, your Beth-el that I find myself in, it is the most beautiful place in all the world.  There is none like it anywhere.  Its grandeur exceeds even your own grandness,’ I said to her.

‘My disciple, one moment in God’s true Heaven with the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ, and you will forget all about my Beth-el which I share with you this moment,’ said She-Angel Elysium to me.

And when she said that, I felt safe in my time to come of my life to come.  I said to her, ‘I can go to Heaven, after all.  Can’t I?’

And she said to me, ‘Gracious Gravel, I see so great salvation dawning upon your face.’

And in understanding I said, ‘All I have to do is to ask God for it, and He will give it to me.’

‘Do you believe?’ she asked me.

‘I believe,’ I said to her.

‘Let us pray,’ she said.

And I bowed my head, closed my eyes, and prayed the prayer, line by line after her.  In that prayer I confessed my sins, sought forgiveness, repented in the Lord, confessed the Gospel, and asked

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for eternal life and trusted God and God alone for my so great salvation.  And I began this sinner’s prayer in salutation to God the Father, and I said this prayer in the truth of the Holy Spirit, and I closed this prayer in the name of the Son of God.  And when She-Angel Elysium finished leading me through my prayer, lo, I was a born-again Christian.  This was how I became a born-again believer, Flanders.

I then said to her, ‘I’m saved!’

And she said to me, ‘Good Lisa, you are no longer lost.’

‘What should I do for God now that I am born again?’ I asked her.

And she said, ‘Go out into all the world and tell them how great things that the Saviour has done for you this day.’

‘She-Angel Elysium, I shall do that for the rest of my life,’ I told her.

She then reached out her arms in compassion of an angel.  And we hugged in the Lord, myself a cheerleader; and herself a pom pom girl.  Then we drew apart.

‘Thank you, O divine Elysium,’ I said to her.

‘Thank you, O good and faithful Gravel,’ she said to me.

Then the pom and dance girl angel turned around and began to walk back into the woods of the Christmas tree farm and out of this meadow in its midst.  And she was gone.  When I looked around, there stood Malachi, the winged horse who had brought me here.  He had been waiting here for me.  Now he was going to bring me back home from this Bethel paradise.  I mounted him, and he lifted up into the skies and out above the Great Lake.  And very soon we were back on the land of Upper Michigan.  I was back at Marquette.  And there stood my ever-loyal CasaBlanca.  Malachi lighted upon the ground, and he greeted my she-unicorn with a beatitude; and she, him; and I dismounted.

CasaBlanca asked me, ‘Did all go well, Mistress?’

I said, ‘All went well, girl.  I got myself born again into the family of God.’

‘Ah, my unsaved mistress has became a daughter of God.  I rejoice with you in great joy, my

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mistress,’ she said unto me.  And she nestled her equine head against my shoulder and groaned in great contentment, almost like a purr to my ears.  She never did that for me before.  I knew truly that the decision that I had made for Christ here was the greatest decision I ever made in my life.  And I reached out both arms and hugged beloved CasaBlanca around her neck, and I kissed her on her head a good half dozen times.  I fawned upon her like never before.  Then I mounted CasaBlanca.

Turning back to Malachi I said, ‘Thank you, O godly winged horse.’

‘In your service unto our Jesus Christ, good Gravel,’ he said back to me.

Then I asked my dear unicorn, ‘Shall we go home, girl?’

‘Let us, Mistress,’ she said to me.

And she broke out upon a gallop.  And after a long trip we were back home at Mom and Dad’s.”

Here in the sand dunes, after this trip down memory lane of her testimony of salvation, Flanders said to her, “I bet that you told your family right away of how Jesus saved you from your sins,”

“I did at that for sure,” said Gravel.  “I was so excited that I had to tell everyone.”

A pensive silent moment came upon the two here in the sand dunes.  Then Lisa Nickels told him what he knew, “They refused the Saviour that first time.”  And she went on to say, “But there will come a time soon where in their last time they will accept the Saviour.”

“That’s what our sand dunes are all about, good and kind Wife,” said Flanders Nickels.

“’Xanadu,’ where I can be ‘my family’s angel.’” said Gravel.

“As with the angel of Bethel, so, too, with the ‘angel of Xanadu,’” said Flanders in great confidence.

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XVI

Flanders and Lisa took a ride south on Highway 141 in his Roadster Replicar.  And they were here now at a place that he had to show her.  The sign said, “Oconto County Baptist Church.”   And the town was Stiles, Wisconsin.  And today was a Saturday.

“This was where you got born again.  Wasn’t it, Flanders?” she asked.

“Uh huh, Gravel,” he said.  That was even before they had first met.  “I had not yet discovered our own church up north.”

“What river is that back there?” she asked.

“That’s the Oconto River,” he said.

“Oconto must be to the east of here then,” she said.

“Yes.  It is,” he said.

“And Oconto Falls must be to the west of here then,” she said.

“It is.  Yes,” he said.

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“It does not look to have been a great big church,” she said.

“About the size of our church now,” he said.

“Like most good fundamental Baptist churches,” she said.  “Nice and small.”

“The way we like it, girl,” he said.

“Lots of nice red brick, like our houses, Flanders,” she said.

“I heard that their new building is all of split field stone,” he said.

“You told me how they outgrew this building here,” she said.

“They moved to Pulaski,” he said.  “Now they are called ‘Brown County Baptist Church.’”

“If we did not already have the great church that we have now, I would drive all the way to Brown County to check out your old church and its new place,” she said.

“We are faithful to Pastor Preamble,” he said.

“He’s the best pastor for me,” said Gravel.

“Well, shall we get out and take a look at the river?” he asked.

“Let’s go and get a better look at the Oconto River,” she said.

And they got out of the convertible and walked up to the river behind Oconto County Baptist Church’s old building.  The sound of the flowing waters was like a hymn to the ears of Gravel.  The sight of the flowing waters was a sweet memory of vignette to Flanders.

“Flanders, you’re remembering something,” said Lisa.  “I see it in your eyes.”

“This was where Pastor Proffery Coins and I stood just a few moments after he had led me to salvation,” said Flanders Nickels.

“You did tell me lots about him, Flanders,” said Gravel.  “He’s the man who led you to Christ.”

“A godly man for sure,” said Flanders.

“And a good man, to have won your soul,” she said.

“He and Pastor Preamble are good friends in the ministry,” said Flanders.

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“Do tell your wife all about that day again, Flanders,” she said.

“How I got born again,” he said.

“The best thing that ever happened to you,” she said.

“It took two church services to get this man of sin to seek the Saviour,” he said.  “Sunday Morning Worship and Sunday Evening Worship, both on the same Sunday.”

Then Flanders Nickels went on to give to Lisa the testimony of his salvation once again to the delight of her ears and to the delight of his tongue:  “I was on a ride upon WhiteHouse one day, and WhiteHouse went and asked me a crazy thing.  She asked me, ‘Master, don’t you think that maybe you ought to ask around about Jesus?’

I was offended.  I thought that that was a snap.  And I thought that she was out of line for saying that to me.  I said unto her, ‘How come then?’

And she said, ‘I heard you use Jesus’s name in vain, Master.’

‘I had to do that,’ I told her.  ‘Why, I went and hit my thumb with the hammer.’

‘A guy could go to Hell for doing something like that,’ she said to me.

‘How do you know so much about God?’ I asked her.

‘We unicorns have an innate understanding of God in our natures,’ she told me.

‘I don’t,’ I said.

And she said, ‘Maybe you ought to get this understanding for yourself, Master.’

‘What do you expect me to do?’ I asked her in a huff.  ‘Ask God to show Himself to me?’

‘That would be a good thing to do,’ she said to me.

‘How am I to do that?’ I asked her.

‘Ask God to lead you to where He might wish to show Himself to you,’ said WhiteHouse.

‘That’s crazy,’ I said to her.

‘Crazy.  Yes.  I dare you to do that, Master,’ she said to me.

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And I looked up toward Heaven, and I forced a prayer, just to make my unicorn happy, ‘If you would, God, have my unicorn lead me to a place that neither she nor I know anything about, a place where You need to teach me about Christ.’

And she took me to a church, of course.  The sign said ‘Oconto County Baptist Church.’  The day was Sunday morning.  And people were riding and driving up into this church’s parking lot.  With some constraint and a nasty look at my she-unicorn, I said to her, ‘I’m going to church.’  And I went to my first Sunday Morning Worship of my life.  You would not believe what happened that day in church.”

“It was all because of that bagpipe player,” said Gravel, having heard this good true story before lots of times.

“They called him the ‘Bagpipe Player of Oconto,’” said Flanders.  “He played one mean bagpipes.”

“He had come from far away,” said Gravel.

“He had moved here from Scotland,” said Flanders.  “And he was dressed in all manner of Scottish bagpiper apparel.”

“Do tell it from the beginning,” said Lisa Nickels.

“From the beginning,” said Flanders.   And he began,  “The pastor’s sermon was on Jeremiah 17:5-6.  That couple of verses says this:  ‘Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.’  Then he began to preach about this life down here:  ‘What is life for all who are not in Christ?  It is an existence of disappointments and discouragements and despair.  The lost have broken dreams that forever cast their shadows.  They have broken hearts that never heal over former boyfriends or girlfriends.  They have memories that live on about family members who have

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died and passed on.  They need to escape the miseries of life.  And they think to go and do fun things in their search for happiness.  They try things that are good in themselves to find this elusive happiness.  They get into watching football, baseball, basketball.  They go and play with the neighborhood football and baseball and basketball.  They work hard at their workplace and go ahead and work harder for a promotion;  they get that promotion, and now they have to work harder.   They marry a beautiful woman or a handsome man, and settle down and raise a family together.  They go and take classes at a technical school to learn a new trade or a new hobby.  They read good books or lots of newspapers.  They dabble with the stock market and seek to make money in a wholesome way.  They even might try their hand at writing that fancy called ‘the great American novel.’  They visit the neighbors and chat together.  They walk the dog every day all year long.  They go and adopt a kitten to keep them from loneliness.  They spend many hours per day watching TV.  They take care of the house and the yard, keeping both in tip top condition.  They may go ahead and start a big project and remodel the house or landscape the yard.  They buy a cabin up north and go on trips to the cabin for summertime fun in Wisconsin. There is no end to the fun things that people find to do to entertain themselves.  And this is fun for them, indeed.  But this fun does not satisfy them.  When this fun is all said and done, all unsaved people are still unhappy.  And they have not found what they were seeking.  The same must be said for all those lost people who try for themselves those things that are not good in themselves.  What lost man or woman or child has not gone and done something that is fun and that is not a good thing to do in this life?  They might drink to get drunk.  They might do drugs to get high.  They might seek immorality in quest for some transcendent moment.  They might gamble and get the excitement inside of becoming rich.  They might seek a life of crime and think to get away with it forever, only to be finally caught and sent to jail.  They might dabble in the occult in search for power beyond themselves.  They might go to a false church and deceive themselves, thinking themselves to be “good church people” and do good deeds of charity, only to find out that they were sincerely wrong about salvation.

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People out there without Christ try all the things that the world and the flesh and the Devil offer them for fulfillment, but they are never fulfilled.  They never sought Christ for contentment, and they die in their sins and go to Hell.  Today we have with us the famous Bagpipe Player of Oconto to play us a song.  He is going to play on the bagpipes the great song “Auld Lang Syne.”  And our good church choir is going to sing this song as he plays it.’  And the great song about ‘the good old days’ began, Gravel,” said Flanders:

“’1.  Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And ne’er brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And days o’ lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet

For auld lang syne!

 

2. We twa hae run about the braes,

And pu’d the gow ans fine

But we’ve wandered mony a weary fool

Sin’ auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet

For auld lang syne.

 

3. We twa hae paid l’t in the burn

Frae morning sun till dine,

But seas between us braid hae roar’d

Sin auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet

For auld lang syne!

 

4. And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere,

And gie’s a hand o’ thine,

And we’ll tak a right guid willie-waught

For auld lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet

For auld lang syne!

 

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5. And surely ye’ll be your pint’ stoup

And surely I’ll be mine!

And we’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet

For auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne

We’ll take a cup o’kindness yet

For auld lang syne!’

 

I tell you, Lisa, never before had I seen my life as so discontent as when I heard that song.  I could remember all of the good old days of my life having gone away out of my so-called life.  I could see my past as my only happiness.  I could see my present life as an unhappy existence.  And my future?  I had nothing to look forward to.  I might as well have died.  And my feelings were all grief and mourning that day at church after I had heard that song.  But God was working on me.  God was preparing me.  God was in that song for me.  And God’s good was going to come from that song upon me.  Pastor’s sermon spoke right to me in my life at the time with the power of God’s Word.  And the Bagpipe player drove that sermon deep into my heart with the power of the Holy Spirit.  I did not know that at the time.  And Pastor then went on to say, ‘Come to Oconto County Baptist church tonight for Sunday Evening Worship for God to complete his two-part message that He has begun this morning.’

Then Pastor Coins dismissed his flock with a word of prayer ending that morning’s worship service.

And I left very disconsolate and wearied of life.  But I had to go back to this church, Lisa.  That pastor said that God’s lesson for that Sunday was of two parts, and that the second part was to come later that same day.  In that first part, he had preached exactly what I felt in my whole life—searching for the answer to life and not finding it.  And he said that that was because I was without Christ.  Who was this Christ?  I could tell that Pastor Coins would surely answer that for me in the Sunday Evening Worship service that very night.  I could not stay away from church that evening.  And I rode WhiteHouse back to Oconto County Baptist Church so early that evening that I got there even before Pastor and his wife had gotten there.

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And not long later, Sunday Evening Worship began.  I thought that I saw all of the flock who had come this morning were also all here this evening.  But this evening there was a different bagpipe player here with us.  The other bagpipe player was not here tonight.  I dared pray a silent prayer to God this time, saying, ‘Lord, please show me Who You are.’  This was what WhiteHouse wished me to do.

And Pastor Proffery Coins began his message.  And he said, ‘Flock of God, tonight I will finish what I started preaching this morning.  Those of you who are born again probably remembered your old life before Christ when you heard me preaching this morning.  In tonight’s sermon all of you who are born again will definitely think an “Amen” when I preach what you already know.  Those of you who are not born again who heard me preach this morning can most probably say, “I know how it is.”’ And those of you who are here this evening and who are not born again will hear wonderful and terrific things about how Christ changes lives to the glory of God.  As you can probably tell, tonight I shall talk about the life of a faithful born-again believer walking with Christ.  Let me recite to you Jeremiah 17:7-8:  “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”  What does this mean?  In one short proverb it can be summarized, “Only Jesus satisfies!”  And just as Jesus satisfies, Jesus saves, as well.  Jesus is the born-again believer’s only satisfaction, only contentment, only fulfillment.  If you want to feel good, open up the King James Bible and read it.  If you want to feel good, go to God your Heavenly Father, and pray to Him.  If you want to feel good, go to a good church where the truth is given out.  I heard it said for the born-again Christian that the happiest place that he can be is to be right in the will of the Lord.  God had created mankind for the unique purpose of fellowshipping with Him.  This is done through Bible-reading and praying and going to church.  God created animals, but animals cannot fellowship with God.  God created plants, but plants cannot fellowship with God.  And God created protozoa, but protozoa cannot

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fellowship with God.  But only man can worship and fellowship with God.  And nothing is more of a sweet savor to our Maker than for His men and women and children to willingly seek Him out and worship Him.  This makes God happy.  And this makes men and women and children happy.  But, do not forget—only those who are truly born again can worship God the way that God wishes to be worshipped.  No worshiper who is lost in his sins can honor a holy and righteous God when he seeks to worship Him.  God’s truth will never come to an unsaved worshiper reading a Bible that is not the King James Bible.  God’s ears will never hear the prayers of an unsaved worshiper unless he is praying the sinners’ prayer.  And God is not within the walls of a false church of a false denomination of unsaved church people.  But the born-again Christian living for God has it the best down here on Earth with God as his Guide and will have it the best in the life to come—in Heaven forever with the saints and the angels.  Trials come in this life, but God will help him through those trials.  Saved loved ones pass away, but the saved one left behind knows that he will see them again in Heaven.  Persecution may arise for the Christian, but God will give him extra rewards in Heaven for enduring that in the name of the Lord.  And dying, for the believer, is like “going to sleep and waking up in Heaven.”  And, further, everything that a Christian does in love and faithfulness unto God in this life, will earn that Christian in Heaven certain crowns and lots of Heavenly blessings and the Lord’s commendation to him, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”’ Then Pastor Coins said, ‘Tonight we have some more special music for our worship service.  We have visiting us today “the Bagpipe Player of Oconto Falls.”’”

Gravel spoke up and said to Flanders here years later, “I heard of ‘the Bagpipe Player of Oconto Falls.’  Didn’t he come from Ireland?”

“That was where he was born,” said Flanders.  “And he looked every part of an Irish Bagpipe player from his head to his feet.”

“I love to hear Irish bagpipers play the song ‘Danny Boy.’” she said.

“I do, too,” he said.

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“What song did he play for the church that night?  Was it a good old-fashioned hymn?” she asked Flanders.

“It was a great hymn that is best known as played on bagpipes,” he said.

“Which hymn was it?” she asked.

And he answered her question in continuing his testimony:  “The Pastor then went on to say, ‘Today the celebrated bagpipe player will play “Amazing Grace.”  And the church choir will sing this great hymn from the church hymnbook as he plays.’  And I saw and heard the most famous hymn of all in its most grand presentation I had ever seen and heard”:

“’1.  Amazing grace—how sweet the sound–

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind but now I see.

 

2. ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!

 

3. Thru many dangers, toils and snares

I have already come;

‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

 

4. When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise,

Than when we’d first begun.’

 

Oh how good I felt, O Gravel.  The bagpipes did their magic on me again.  I had found so great hope when I was listening to Pastor’s preaching on the good Christian’s life.  And once again the song played by the famous bagpiper sealed Pastor’s powerful sermon deep into my spirit and my soul.  I could feel God calling me into His family.  I wanted to repent and get right with God.  I could see that happiness could be found only with Christ as Saviour. I was ready to go and get saved.  And I had not long to wait to seek and find that opportunity.  And Sunday Evening Worship ended with a word of

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prayer.  And I came right up to the pastor, and I said, ‘Pastor Coins, I would like to get saved tonight.’

‘Alleluia, young man,’ he said to me.  ‘Come back with me to my office.’

And I followed him to a door in the back wall right behind the pulpit.  We went through, and I found myself in a cool and dim and dank shaft.  ‘Don’t mind the hallway,’ Pastor said to me.  ‘It gets better where it leads up to.  We’re still in our building program here in Stiles.’

Then we came to a wooden door with a sign.  This sign was a blank white piece of paper with the words in magic marker written out upon it in cursive, ‘Pastor’s office,’ taped to the door with masking tape.

‘Do you like the sign?” asked the pastor.  ‘Our grade school Sunday School class made this for me.’

Then we went into his office.  It was a gorgeous office.  ‘Don’t mind the office,’ Pastor said to me.  ‘My wife hasn’t been here yet to clean up and dust and vacuum.’  There was not one thing in its wrong place.  There was not one thing that was dirty.  There was not one speck of dust anywhere.  And the carpet did not need vacuuming.  Then he said, ‘I remember now.  My wife was out visiting at the nursing home, and I did the cleaning of the office this time.  I remember going on and cleaning the rest of the church, as well.’

This office looked to be about fifteen feet by fifteen feet by fifteen feet.  Pastor’s desk was a huge desk of oak with a middle drawer and with a cupboard underneath it to the left and with a cupboard underneath it to the right.  ‘I always have this in my middle drawer of my desk,’ he said.  And he opened outward this drawer and took out a black holy Bible.  ‘King James for sure at that.’ he said to me.  ‘The only true Word of God.’  Then he said to me, ‘Ask me what else I have in my desk.’

Before I could ask, he opened his desk’s left cupboard and pulled out a wooden bin full of index cards scattered within randomly.  They were all different colors and were all three-inches-by-five-inches and ruled in their fronts and plain in their backs.  ‘Greek vocabulary word flash cards,’ he said, ‘in order to

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to study the original Old Testament. ‘  Then he put that bin back into the left cupboard of his desk and shut that door, and he opened the right cupboard of his desk and pulled out another exact same wooden bin of the exact same kinds of index cards.  And he said to me, ‘Hebrew vocabulary flash cards in order to study the original New Testament.’  He showed this, too, to me, then set this bin back into the right cupboard of his desk and shut that door.  Then he said, ‘Oops, I left things not put away still on my desk.’  I looked down upon his desktop and saw two big paperback books.  One was a Greek-English/English-Greek dictionary.  The other was a Hebrew-English/English-Hebrew dictionary.  He at once took them both and put them in their correct desk cupboard.  ‘There,’ he said.  ‘So what brought us both into my office?’

And I said unto him, ‘Pastor, I would like to get saved tonight.’

‘Oh yes,’ he said.  ‘Do sit down, young man.’

I looked around for a chair, but saw only Pastor’s desk chair in this big office.  It was quite a chair.  It was an easy chair that people would sit down in in a living room of a house.  But this easy chair was in front of his desk.  ‘Do you like my desk chair, young fellow?’  he asked me.

‘I do, Pastor,’ I said.

‘It was a gift from my flock,’ he said.  ‘An anniversary present for my thirtieth year in the ministry.’  We were both still standing.  Pastor then looked around and said, ‘My my, I must have left the visitor’s chair outside when I cleaned.’  And he went to a screen door in the back of this office and went outside and came back inside with a sturdy wooden chair that one would see at a dining room table in one’s house.  He then set it in front of his desk.  We were both still standing by his desk.  And he sat down behind his desk, and I sat down in front of his desk.  Then he said, ‘No no.  This won’t do.’  And he stood up and said to me, ‘Do make yourself at home and use my chair, my good fellow.’  I hesitated.  But he insisted.  So I sat down upon his easy chair.  And he sat down upon my wooden chair.  ‘Now then, let us begin.’ he said to me.  ‘Where should we start?’

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He seemed to be an absent-minded preacher this whole while that we were in his office.  But I saw in him great spiritual wisdom, especially evident in his two sermons that I heard that day.  And when I said to him the third time, ‘Pastor Coins, I would like to get saved tonight,’ that was when the Holy Spirit lit up his face with sound mind and sound understanding and sound focus.

And he said, ‘Let us begin.’

And he taught me the whole plan of salvation start to finish, leading me through the Romans’ Road of salvation verses that you and I know about, Gravel.  And he shared the Gospel with me over and over again as he preached the Saviour unto me until I had it memorized in my heart.  And then he led me line-by-line through the sinners’ prayer—he and I alone in his back office.  And when I finished that prayer with an ‘Amen,’ that was when I had gotten saved.”

“Hallelujah!” said Lisa Nickels upon hearing this testimony of her husband’s salvation once again.

“That’s what Pastor Coins said right then, Gravel.  He said, ‘Hallelujah!’” said Flanders Nickels.

“Then you two went out back to talk about your new life in Christ,” said Gravel, knowing the good true tale.

“We went outside into the night, and it was dark, with no moon, and we stood before the Oconto River,” said Flanders.

“What did you talk about alone together, you and the pastor?” asked Gravel.

“I asked him what God would want me to do for Him now that I was a born-again believer.” said Flanders.

And he said to me, ‘Now that you are a Christian, God needs you to go to a good church, be baptized, and become a member of that church.’

I asked him, ‘This church would be just the right church for me, but I live far away from here.  I

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am not sure that I can be faithful to Oconto County Baptist Church as God wishes me to be.’

He then said to me, ‘I know a good pastor in the next county north of here.  His name is Repartée Preamble.  And his church is Marinette County Baptist Church.  Is that within driving or riding distance for you?’

‘Marinette county is a part of Wisconsin that I know all about,’ I said to him.  ‘I could commute to that church very easily and be faithful and loyal to that church.’

“Go, then, to that church,’ he urged me.

‘And there are other churches in my area, too,’ I told him.  ‘I could check them out.’

‘Go not to any other church in Marinette County than that Baptist church,’ he warned me.

‘How come?’ I asked him.  I thought that all churches were good churches.

But he said in good pastoral warning, ‘Go only to the Baptist church.’

And I believed him with faith.  I would stay away from the other denominations.  I would become and stay and grow in the Lord only as a Baptist.

Then, on the banks of the Oconto River, the Baptist pastor who had just led me to Christ, did put his one hand on my head and his other hand on my back and prayed for me with a blessing:  ‘Good Lord, I pray You guide this good young man all the rest of the days of his life.  He can say now to you what he could not say before:  “Abba, Father.”  He is now an heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus.

And your love for him now that he is a Christian is called “agape love”—which is Your own perfect love for all believers.  Ever give him victory over every temptation that Satan throws upon him.  Ever keep him to flee sin with the power of prayer and the Holy Ghost.  Ever keep him in the Word of God.  Ever give him the joy of fellowship at the church of your choosing.  Ever give him searching souls to win for Christ as you have given him to me this day.  Who knows?  This young man could grow up someday to become a griffin-slayer.  What more noble calling than that for a Christian?  I hereby give him into Your hands, O Lord God.  Make him to become more and more like Christ day by day.  Make

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him to become mighty in the Lord—as griffin-slayer or not as griffin-slayer.  In Christ’s name I intercede for him.  Amen.’

‘Thank you, Pastor,’ I said to him.

‘Go with God, young man,’ he said to me.

‘I shall go with God, sir,’ I said to him.

Then we parted ways.  I would never see him again.  He would never see me again.   He walked back to his office.  I walked around back to the parking lot.  There was good WhiteHouse awaiting me.

She asked me, ‘How did it go, Master?’

‘It went well, girl.’ I told her jubilantly.

‘You got born again.  Didn’t you, Master?’ she asked me.

‘My tone of voice has given me away, O WhiteHouse,’ I said.  ‘Yes, your master has now become a believer.’

‘I am so happy for you, O Master,’ she said to me.

‘And I am, too,’ I said.  ‘You were right all along about my needing God.’

Here it was now, years later.  Flanders was alone with his cheerleader wife Gravel.  And they were standing upon the banks of the Oconto River of daylight.  Right behind them was the old abandoned church.  They could see the back door of the office where Flanders had gotten saved.  They were standing right where Flanders had been standing by Pastor Coins, where he had recommended Flanders to go and seek Pastor Preamble and his church.  And Gravel said, “This Oconto County Baptist Church for you is every bit the glory of God as was my magical land of Bethel up north for myself.  You got saved in an office.  I got saved in a field amid a Christmas tree farm.  So many places in which to become a Christian.  And becoming a believer can never be taken away.”

Having relived all of this, Flanders and Gravel then got back into the Roadster Replicar, and they drove back up north back to home, both singing hymns of God with their lips.

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CHAPTER XVII

The four were doing Bible study together right in the sand dunes at the top of the sand dunes’ hill.  WhiteHouse said, “Master, we know that God made man on the sixth day.  Did He make unicorns on the sixth day as well?”

“’And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind:  and God saw that it was good.’…’And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.’  Genesis chapter two, girl,” recited Flanders from two separate verses.

“Yep.  That sounds like us unicorns,” said CasaBlanca,  “’we beasts of the earth after our kind.’”

Gravel spoke and said, “I wonder if that really does mean unicorns, though.  When God refers to ‘the beasts of the earth,’ does He not mean the nonspeaking animals?”

“We speaking animals are a higher order of animals,” said WhiteHouse.

“I see what you mean,” said CasaBlanca.  “We unicorns are not dumb animals.”

“Nor are the centaurs and the winged horses and the griffins and the hinds and the harpies and

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the dragons and the wyvern and the basilisks and the chimera and all such like,” said WhiteHouse.

“Perhaps the Bible does not tell us when God created unicorns,” said Flanders.

“We can ask God when we get to Heaven, Hubby,” said Gravel.

“Psalm 92:10 here in front of me now talks about unicorns,” said WhiteHouse.

“Read it for us, girl,” said Flanders.

And she read it to them, “But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn:  I shall be anointed with fresh oil.”

“I see it,” said CasaBlanca.  “And I see a little subtitle to this Psalm 92 at the top underneath the chapter title.”

“Tell me it, girl,” said Lisa.

And CasaBlanca read it, “A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.”

“Lots of Psalms have such subtitles as these, and lots of Psalms do not have subtitles,” said Flanders.

“What are they for?  All of those subtitles in the Psalter, Master?” asked WhiteHouse.

Lisa Nickels said, “I see these little notations lots in the book of Psalms.  I may not know what they’re all about, but I can say that they’re just as inspired Word of God as are the Psalms themselves and the rest of the Bible.”

“Though they are not Bible verses per se, still they are the Word of God, Mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.

“Uh huh,” said Gravel with a nod of her head.

“I know what those little subtitles say,” said Flanders.  “I learned all about them in Sunday School in the adult class.”

“Tell us, Hubby,” said Gravel.

And he told them, “These have four different purposes.  For one, they may tell who the author

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of that Psalm is.  For another, they may tell about the history behind that Psalm when it was written.  For another, if those Psalms are songs, they may serve as instructions for music.  And for another, they may be simple dedications to those Psalms.”

“Some of those subtitles, from what I have seen, have the longest words in them,” said Lisa.  “None of those long words have I a clue as to what they mean,”

“Indeed, nowadays, years after, those words are yet mysteries to Bible scholars, Lisa,” said Flanders.

And Lisa Nickels recited these mystery words:  “’Neginoth,’ ‘Nehiloth,’ ‘Sheminith,’ ‘Shiggaion,’ ‘Gittith,’ ‘Muth-labben,’ ‘Michtam,’ ‘Aijeleth Shahar,’ ‘Maschil,’ ‘Shoshannim,’ ‘Alamoth,’ ‘Mahalath.’ ‘Jonath-elem-rechokim,’ ‘Al-tashchith,’ ‘Shushan-eduth.’ ‘Neginah.’ ‘Negimoth,’ ‘Shoshannim-Eduth,’ and ‘Mahalath Leannoth.’”

“I think that I know what ‘Michtam’ means,” said Flanders.

“What’s it mean?” asked Gravel.

“’Michtam’ means ‘contemplation,’” said Flanders.

“What about ‘Maschil?’ asked Lisa.

“’Maschil’ also means ‘contemplation,’” said Flanders.  “’Michtam’ and ‘Maschil’ are the most frequently used of these big mystery words of the Psalter’s subtitles,” said Flanders.

“Old words,” said CasaBlanca.

“Hard words,” said WhiteHouse.

“Mistress,” said CasaBlanca, “you can ask God what the others mean when you get to Heaven,”

“Yeah!  That’s right, girl,” said the cheerleader.

“Master,” said WhiteHouse, “I counted the psalms whose subtitles said that David wrote them.  I counted seventy-three of them.  But the Psalter has one hundred fifty total Psalms.  I could not remember the rest of the subtitles with their authors’ names.  But you’re in the Psalms now in your

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Bible-reading.  Who else wrote the Psalms besides David?”

“I’ve been doing some counting of my own, WhiteHouse,” said Flanders.  “I finished Psalms yesterday.  And I took notes in my index card notebook.”

“What did you find out, Master?” asked WhiteHouse.

“I found out that David wrote seventy-three Psalms, just as you said.” began Flanders.  “And I also found out that Asaph wrote twelve of the Psalms, and the sons of Korah wrote eleven of the Psalms, and Solomon wrote two of the Psalms, and Moses wrote one of the Psalms, and Heman wrote one of the Psalms, and Ethan the Ezrahite wrote one of the Psalms.”

Then CasaBlanca said, “That’s one hundred one Psalms.  There are one hundred fifty Psalms in the book of Psalms.  That leaves forty-nine Psalms unaccounted for.”

“Oh, but girl, that’s because those Psalms are anonymous,” said the cheerleader.

“We do not know who wrote them then,” said CasaBlanca.

“Nobody knows,” said Flanders.

“Only God knows,” said Gravel.

And WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca asked together, “You can ask Christ when you get to Heaven.”

“Very true, girl,” said Flanders.

“Right again, my unicorn,” said Gravel.

“Our two leaders of our Marinette County Baptist Church have names that have meanings to them, too,” said CasaBlanca.

“Pastor Repartée Preamble and Deacon Doxology Benediction,” summed up WhiteHouse.

“I know what Pastor’s first name and last name means.  I am good with words,” said Gravel.  “But to my shame, I still can’t tell the difference between the church words that make up our deacon’s name.”

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“Tell us what you know, Lisa, and I will tell you what I know,” said Flanders.

“Do you know the difference between what a ‘doxology’ is and what a ‘benediction’ is, Flanders?” asked the cheerleader wife.

“Uh huh,” he said with a nod of his head.  “You go first.”

And Gravel went on to teach upon Pastor’s name:  “Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines ‘repartee’ as ‘1a:  A quick and witty reply.  b.  A succession or interchange of clever retorts:  amusing and usually light sparring with words.  2.  Adroitness and cleverness in reply:  skill in repartee.’”

“That’s Pastor,” said WhiteHouse.  “He has an answer to every question about the Scriptures.”

“And he has the gift of gab that has led a great many to Christ,” said CasaBlanca.

“As the Bible says,” said Flanders, “’Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.’  II Timothy 4:2.”

“Mistress, tell us what ‘Preamble’ means according to the dictionary,” said CasaBlanca.

And Lisa Nickels answered her question, teaching the dictionary’s definition of Pastor’s last name,  “’Preamble:  1:  An introductory statement, especially:  the introductory part of a constitution or statute that usually states the reasons for and intent of the law.  2:  An introductory fact or circumstance; especially:  one indicating what is to follow.’”

“Quite so,” said Flanders in praise of Pastor Preamble.  “Wherever he goes, souls get saved.”

“He is the most mighty of our church’s soul-winners,” said Lisa.

“He has a most thought-provoking question that is just the right preamble for all to hear when he and I go out on Thursday Evening Visitation,” said Flanders.

“The eternal question, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“The one sure to get a person thinking about Heaven and Hell,” said CasaBlanca.

“Say it to us, Hubby,” said Gravel.

“’If you were to die today, where would you go?’” Flanders recited Pastor’s opening statement,

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house to house, apartment to apartment, and person to person.

“What a fitting preamble to witnessing,” said Gravel.

A moment passed; then WhiteHouse said, “Now your turn, Master.  Teach us what our deacon’s name means.”

“Doxology Benediction,” he began.

“’Doxology’ first, because that’s his first name,” requested Lisa.

“’Doxology’ first,” he agreed.  “That means, ‘a usually liturgical expression of praise to God.’”

“Our church sings a hymn that is entitled ‘Doxology,’” said CasaBlanca.  “It is on the inside front cover of the hymnbook.”

“I remember how it goes,” said the cheerleader.  “Let me sing it.”

“Sing it, girl,” said Flanders.

And Gravel sang the Doxology for them, and Flanders joined in:

“Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Amen.”

 

“And now ‘benediction’ last, because that is our deacon’s last name,” said Lisa Nickels.

“’Benediction’ last,” he agreed in gladness.  “That means, ‘an invocation of a blessing, especially the short blessing with which public worship is concluded.’”

Right away, the cheerleader began to sing:

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, be with you all;

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen.”

 

“Mistress, that is on the inside back cover of our church hymnbook,” said CasaBlanca.

“The title really is called ‘Benediction,’” said WhiteHouse.  “I saw it back there, too.”

“We never sang that at church yet, Gravel,” said Flanders.  “But now I know a new hymn, thanks to you.”

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“Emmy and I sing it when we get together,” said Lisa about Pastor’s wife and herself.

“Well, now we know all about doxologies and benedictions.  Does anybody here want to talk about beatitudes?” said Flanders.

“Blessed be…,” said Gravel in broad definition of what a beatitude was and how it started.

“I have a favorite beatitude in the Scriptures, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“Which one is it, girl?” asked Flanders.

“Revelation 1:3:  ‘Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein:  for the time is at hand,’” recited the wise she-unicorn by memory.

“Great verse!” said Lisa.   And she said the meaning of this verse: “A blessing from God upon all who go and read the book of Revelation.”

“What is your favorite beatitude, Mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.  “Do you have a favorite?”

“I have indeed, girl,” said the cheerleader.  “It is Matthew 5:11-12.  That says this:  ‘Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:  for great is your reward in heaven:  for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.’”

“What does that say, Mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.

“In a nutshell, it says that if I get treated badly for being a Christian, then God will reward me all the more so when I get to Heaven.  The prophets had gone through the same kinds of things,” said Lisa.

“I have a favorite beatitude, too,” said CasaBlanca.

“I know which one it is,” said Gravel.  “Tell it to me for me to make sure.”

And the she-unicorn of Gravel recited her favorite such Bible verse of this kind, “’Blessed be the Lord for evermore.  Amen, and Amen.’  Psalm 89:52.”

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“Yep.  I’m right,” said Lisa.

“That’s the beatitude that closes Book III of the book of Psalms,” said CasaBlanca.

“Why is that your favorite, CasaBlanca?” asked Flanders.

And CasaBlanca said, “That’s how we two unicorns finish our prayers when we have prayer meeting together.”

“Yeah, Master,” said WhiteHouse.  “She and I.”

“Great thing to say in prayer meeting,” said Flanders.

“Do you have a favorite beatitude in the Good Book, my master?” asked WhiteHouse.

“That I do, girl,” he said.  “It is just like Gravel’s, but in another place and with different words.”

“Flanders’s beatitude is a parallel to my beatitude,” said Lisa.

And Flanders told his favorite beatitude, “’Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.  Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy:  for, behold, your reward is great in heaven:  for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.’  Luke 6:22-23.”

“Tell us what that means for you, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“It tells me this:  ‘If the whole world goes against me, because I love Jesus, then I can still feel pretty good, because it will be all the more happy for me Up in Heaven, because of all that.  After all, the prophets in the Bible had the same kinds of problems,’” answered Flanders Nickels.

“Master, such persecutors may end up being struck dead by God,” said WhiteHouse.

“God could do that, girl,” agreed Flanders.

“God has smitten people dead throughout the Scriptures,” said Gravel.  “Some alone, and some with many others.”

“They went and got God mad at them,” said CasaBlanca about such people.

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“It happened to most wicked King Herod of Acts chapter twelve,” began Lisa.  And she told the Biblical true tale:  “Herod one day made one of his speeches.  Once again he was dressed like a king.  And once again he set himself upon a throne.  Once again he was proud of his speech that he gave to his audience.  His followers, in undue and sincere adulation of him, began to cheer him, exclaiming of his vaunted speech, ‘It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.’  He took it all in in great satisfaction of pride.  He never thought about giving God this glory that he was getting for himself.  And if God had told him to, he would surely have said, ‘No way!’ to God.  Herod felt like a god now, and it felt good to him.  And he would not let go of his great pride.  Then the real Almighty God struck him from Above.

As the Bible says, ‘[Herod] was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.’  The Lord had smitten Herod dead.  And what a vile way to die. “

Flanders then spoke and said, “I read in the Bible how the Lord struck Nabal dead in I Samuel chapter twenty-five.”

“Ah, Nabal,” summed up Lisa. “‘A man churlish and evil in his doings,’ ‘such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him,’ ‘for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.’”

“A bad guy in the Bible,” said Flanders.   And he went on to tell what happened to this Nabal:

“David came to Nabal in peace and in good greetings.  And he asked this rich man for a little charity for himself and his men.  But Nabal said to him in contempt and scorn, ‘Who is David?  And who is the son of Jesse?   There be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.   Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?’  Remember, the Bible says that David was ‘a man after God’s own heart.’  David was God’s man.  And God got even with Nabal for David.  And Nabal’s wife came personally to David and convinced David not to go get Nabal.  And she came back and saw that her husband was in the middle of a great party, like unto that of a king’s, and he was drunk.  So she had to

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wait until the next morning to tell him what David had almost gone and done to him.  And God struck his heart, and he ‘became as a stone.’  And then, ten days later, God smote Nabal dead.”

“God goes to bat for good Baptist pastors, too, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“Good pastors are today’s God’s men,” said Gravel.

And CasaBlanca said, “Tell us of another time in the Bible where God smote someone dead.”

“Why, there is always the true story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter five,” said Lisa.

“They both lied to the Holy Ghost,” said Flanders.

“Two people agreed together to lie to God,” said Lisa Nickels.

“Did they think that God would be fooled, Mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.

“They weren’t thinking of that,” said Gravel.  “They lied in hoping to fool everyone around them.”

“Two at once,” said CasaBlanca.

“Two, yes.  But not at once,” said Gravel.  “First Ananias.  Second Sapphira.  They were husband and wife.”

“Tell us all about it,” said WhiteHouse.

And the cheerleader summarized Acts chapter five:  “These two church people went and sold some land.  They kept some of this money for themselves.  And they gave some of this money to the church.  And Ananias said, ‘This is all the money I made for selling my land.  It is all here.  And I am giving it all to the work of the Lord.’  Behold, right away Ananias was struck dead by God. He fell down dead, and the news spread, and the fear of God came upon the church.  But Sapphira had not heard the news yet.  She came three hours later, and she was asked, ‘Did you and your husband really sell that land for this much here?’   And she said, ‘Of course we did.  All of this.’  And the Lord struck her dead as well.  She fell down dead, and the fear of the Lord became even greater among the church.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Lord, I tell you.  I would bet that nobody else went

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ahead to lie to God and to brag unwisely and to pull a trick like what Ananias and Sapphira tried to do after all of this happened.”

“And the priest Eli was struck dead by God, too,” said Flanders.  “Either smitten dead or allowed to die.”

“Eli was no good,” said Lisa.

Flanders went on to tell the story:  “He was incompetent and did not discipline his sons, and his sons committed immorality with the women at the tabernacle.  And in his days, the Lord did not send the prophets to speak the Word of God.  And when Israel went to battle against the Philistines, Eli let the troops bring with them, of all things, the very ark of testimony itself!  Well, they came back to tell the news to Eli of how the battle went.  And Eli found out that his two sons died in battle and that Israel lost the battle and that the Philistines took the ark of the covenant away and ran off with it!  When Eli found out that the Philistines now had the ark, he fell backwards from his seat, broke his neck, and died.  He was old and nearly blind and heavy and ninety-eight years into life.”

“Master, could that have been an accident and not a striking dead by God?” asked WhiteHouse.

“I would think that God had smitten Eli,” said Flanders.

“The ark of the covenant was not the thing to use to try to win the battle,” said CasaBlanca.

“That ark was so holy, that a man dare not take off the cover and look inside it,” said WhiteHouse.

“That would be a sure thing to do to get God mad and strike you dead,” said CasaBlanca.  “Dare to look into the ark, and, bang, you’re dead.”

“That happened to fifty thousand people, girl,” said the cheerleader.  “Fifty thousand seventy people, to be more exact.”

“You’re not saying that they all looked into the ark.  Are you, Mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.

“Either looked into it or tried to look into it,” said Gravel.

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“Well, then, they got what they had coming, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.  “Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Curiosity killed the men,” said WhiteHouse.

“Maybe women, too,” said Gravel.

And Flanders said, “God did worse than that with a great pestilence.”

“How many did God smite dead with the pestilence, Master?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Seventy thousand Israelites,” said Flanders.

“Seventy thousand!” exclaimed WhiteHouse.

“What did they do wrong, Flanders?” asked CasaBlanca.

“It was King David who did the wrong.  And innocent people died because of him,” said Flanders.  “It seems that David went ahead to count his soldiers.  Instead of bragging on God to give him the victory in battle, he wanted to brag on himself and his many soldiers to give him victory in battle.  That was not the thing to do for the king of God’s chosen nation.  And God smote dead all of those people with a pestilence.”

“If you think that that’s bad, just take a look at Sennacherib, the proud emperor of Assyria, when he thought to attack good King Hezekiah of Judah,” spoke up Lisa Nickels.

“Was it Assyrians, I hope, and not Israelites, that God struck dead, Mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.

“It was the enemy,  Yes, girl,” said Gravel.

“How many?” asked CasaBlanca.

“Tell them, Flanders,” said the cheerleader.

And Flanders Nickels said, “One hundred eighty-five thousand Assyrians soldiers in the night all at once.”

And Lisa Nickels said, “Don’t mess with the angel of the Lord.”

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Then WhiteHouse spoke up and said, “God is a righteous and avenging God.  And He is a just Judge over evil and wickedness.  And He is always right when He smites people dead.  Even Christians cross the line once too often, and He strikes them dead, too.  The Bible calls that ‘the sin unto death.’  I do say indeed, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’  Fear God and live.”

Then Lisa Nickels said, “But our Lord is also a merciful and gracious God,  He is a God of life.  He is the God of His glorious resurrection.  And He is the God Who resurrected others.”

“I think that I know what you’re saying, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.  “Just as God rightfully struck people dead, He also lovingly, ‘struck people back alive.’”

“Just exactly that, girl,” said the cheerleader.  “He more than once raised the dead back to life.”

“Didn’t Christ do that for Lazarus, Gravel?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Yeah, WhiteHouse,” said Lisa.  “And before He raised him from the dead, He wept.”

“Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, were near and dear to Jesus,” said Flanders.

“And after Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave, many came to believe on Him,” preached Lisa.

“Where’s another time that Jesus went ahead and brought a dead person back to life?” asked WhiteHouse.

“The time where Jesus raised back to life a dead man carried in a coffin,” said Lisa Nickels.  “He told this deceased man’s mother, ‘Weep not.’  And He resurrected this man.  And the Bible goes on to say what everyone was saying about this miracle of Jesus:  ‘That a great prophet is risen up among us,’ and ‘That God hath visited His people.’”

“I bet that the Lord did that lots, Gravel,” said WhiteHouse.

“He worked resurrection upon the daughter of a ruler of a synagogue, too,” said the cheerleader.   “This time it was a little twelve-year-old girl.  Only the inner circle of the Apostles—Peter and James and John—were allowed to see this among the disciples.  Jesus took the girl’s hand, said to her, ‘Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.’  And she arose.  And Jesus, having compassion, said, ‘Give her

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something to eat.’  And after Jesus did this, his fame spread abroad throughout the whole land.”

Flanders then spoke and said, “Jesus had given resurrection power to His Apostles, too.”

And he went on to say, “After Jesus’s own crucifixion and resurrection and ascension, the Apostle Peter, through God, raised a dead person back to life.  It was a woman named ‘Tabitha’ [a.k.a. ‘Dorcas.’]  She was a good doer of good deeds.  Peter came to her where she lay dead.  He prayed and told her to arise, and she opened her eyes, and she sat up.  Everybody found out what Peter had done, and many came to believe in the Lord because of this.”

“Such miracles happen only in the New Testament, Master,” said WhiteHouse erroneously.

“Not so, girl,” said Flanders.  “I know of two places in the Old Testament where men of God resurrected the dead back to life.”

CasaBlanca said, “If those things happened in the Old Testament, too, it was probably prophets of God who raised the dead back to life back then.”

“Right, CasaBlanca,” said Flanders.  “Which two Old Testament prophets were known for doing lots of miracles?”

“Those would be Elijah and Elisha,” guessed CasaBlanca and WhiteHouse together.

“Correct, girls.  Those are the two,” said Flanders.  “First was the raising back to life of the son of the widow woman of Zarephath,”

“I bet that that was Elijah who did that,” said WhiteHouse.

“Yep,” said Flanders.  “And second was the resurrecting of the son of the Shunammite woman.”

“That had to be Elisha then,” said CasaBlanca

“Yes, girl,” said Flanders.  “In Elijah’s case, the prophet stretched himself three times upon the child and prayed to God to bring his life back to him again.  And the child revived.  And the widow woman of Zarephath at once gave glory to God, saying to Elijah, ‘Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.’  And later, in Elisha’s case, this

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prophet of God went about to lie upon him and to stretch out upon him, all the while praying to God to raise the dead back to life, and the child’s flesh turned warm.  Elisha got up, walked back and forth in the house, and came back to lie upon the child again.  And then the child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.  This child was resurrected.”

A silent moment passed now upon this fellowship in the sand dunes.  The four looked around.  It was later now this day.

“I cannot see the sun anymore, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

Gravel said, “It’s already below the horizon,”

“What a quick fun evening we had here in the sand dunes today,” said WhiteHouse.

“Time sure flies when you’re having fun,” said Flanders.

“I cannot see to read from my Bible now, Hubby,” said the cheerleader.

“I see no moon coming out this evening,” said Flanders.

“We’re done already with our fellowship?” asked WhiteHouse.

“We can have more fellowship tomorrow,” said Flanders.

“I cannot wait till tomorrow,” said CasaBlanca.

“Another day in the Lord for us to share together,” said Gravel.  “Something for us to look forward to.”

“I’m sleepy after so much talking,” said CasaBlanca.

“I feel like going to bed,” said WhiteHouse.  “I’m tired after all of my fun today.”

“I think that I will turn in, myself,” said Flanders.

“I’ll go inside for the night, too,” said the cheerleader.

And the unicorn pets went to their stables, and the unicorn keepers went to their bedroom.

It had been another blissful day for the family living upon the sand dunes.

 

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CHAPTER XVIII

How did boy meet girl; and girl, boy?  Or, in this case with Flanders and Gravel, how did man meet woman; and woman, man?  This chapter will tell the most unique tale, through the viewpoint of both.

First will come the story as seen by Flanders:  Flanders was out driving with WhiteHouse far away from home, he in his Roadster Replicar; and she in her flatbed trailer.  “What city is this, Master?” asked his pet unicorn.

“I believe that this is the village of Ashwaubenon,” he said to her.

“What happened to Green Bay?” she asked.  “Did we already pass through it?”

“We have,” he told her.  “Remember how we went past Lambeau Field?”

“Yes.  The football stadium,” she said.

“That was Green Bay, girl,” he said to her.  Then he asked, “Look.  Is that a park to the left?”

“The sign says, ‘Ashwaubomay Park,’ Master,” she said.

“Let’s go there,” he said.

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“I heard of Ashwaubomay Park,” she said.  “It’s the park with the great big man made lake for swimmers.”

“Do you think that it’s open for the year?” he asked.

“It is June now, Master.  I’d bet that it is,” she said.

“Shall we jump in, girl?” he asked.

“Let’s, O Master,” she said.

“Let’s go see this swimming lake,” he said.  “Maybe I will get to see some sexy one-piece swimsuit girls.”

“Or, maybe, better yet for you, some nice pretty cheerleaders,” said WhiteHouse.

“Cheerleaders at the park?” he asked.  “But I like the way you think, WhiteHouse.  You know your master well.”

“We’re passing it now,” said WhiteHouse.

“Not for long, girl,” said Flanders, and he turned back around and came back to the park.

And he pulled in and parked, and they went to the wonderful lake.  “Ah, maillot women everywhere,” said Flanders.

“And good and white unicorns, too,” said WhiteHouse.

“Nothing beats a good and well-built one-piece swimsuit girl,” bragged Flanders on the women here around the lake and on the sand.

Just then a cheerleader walked by.  Flanders turned his head and looked as she went by, too mesmerized to turn away from her.

“Master, what did I tell you?  There are cheerleaders here at Ashwaubomay Park after all,” said WhiteHouse.  “I told you so.  Didn’t I?”

“You did tell me so.  But I did not believe,” he said.

“Now wasn’t she better than any one-piece swimsuit girl to look at, Master?” asked the

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she-unicorn pet.

“Yeah!  Yeah!” he said.

“Master, she’s gone.  What are you looking at?” asked WhiteHouse.

“I was looking at where I had last seen her before I could not see her anymore,” said Flanders.

“Master, it looks like you are in love,” said the unicorn.

“I never saw so beautiful a girl as she before anywhere anytime,” he exclaimed.

“Oh, you’re just saying that because you liked her outfit,” said WhiteHouse.  “I know my master:  A girl in a pretty outfit and with a plain face will catch your eye more than a girl with a pretty face and in a plain outfit,”

“No.  This woman really was pretty this time,” said Flanders.  “In fact her face and her form were even more beautiful than even her cheerleader uniform.”

“A pretty face prettier than a pretty outfit,” said WhiteHouse.  “Master, you let the girl get away.”

“God can bring her back to me.  Or He can bring me to her,” said Flanders in faith.

“She was dressed in black and yellow,” said WhiteHouse.  “I remember that.”

“Yes, girl.  Nice black and yellow all over.” said Flanders.  “And she had foxy wispy tresses of black and the prettiest brown eyes a man ever saw.  And she was built like…’a brick outhouse.’”

“You mean ‘built like a brick—‘” began the wise unicorn.

“You know what I mean, girl,” broke in Flanders.

“What are we standing around for?  Go after the girl already, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“First a word of prayer,” said Flanders.

And they stood together upon the sandy shore of the lake at the park, and Flanders prayed,  “Heavenly Father, if it is Your will that I meet this girl, bring us back together again.  If it is not Your will that I meet this girl, make sure that I never see her again.  In Jesus’s name.  Amen.”

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“Now what?” asked the unicorn pet.

“As they say in France and all over the world, ‘Cherchez la femme,’” replied Flanders.

“’Look for the girl,’” said WhiteHouse in English.

And they parted and individually began to search for the mysterious brunette cheerleader in black and yellow.

After a short while, Flanders came to a most novel goings on at the park.  There was here right in front of him a roped-off area with a sign that read, “Amateur Boxing Day.”  It said also, “Free admission.  Free participation.  Open to all.”   And he saw two men going at it right now in a boxing match.  He had never seen unofficial fights like this before.  But he had to find the girl. That cheerleader right now took utmost precedence.  And he left the fight and continued looking for the woman.  He searched the whole park and found not the girl, and yet his faith in God was still strong.  If he and she were meant for each other, God would still bring them together.  But if he and she were not meant for each other, maybe that would mean that she would be a stumbling block for his walk with Christ.  And as important as this foxy lady was to him now, even in the heat of the moment, God and His will was even more important to Flanders.

With a sigh of resignation and submission to the all-wise and all-good Lord Jesus, Flanders left the girl and his hopes in the hands of God, and he ceased the search and began to search for WhiteHouse.

He then came back to the roped-off amateur prize fight “ring.”  This time a different pair of men were boxing.  He watched, thinking to maybe see some blood or maybe even a knockdown or a knockout.  That would be quite novel to behold right in front of him like that.  But the guys were fighting so unprofessionally that their punches were missing or just nicking or simply did not have any force behind them.  As Flanders watched, he saw two men who knew nothing about real boxing fight like two men who did not know how to box.  Nobody got hurt.  Nobody hurt the other.  And it was only

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for one round.  Then this bout was done.   And the officials prepared the next boxing match here on “Amateur Boxing Day.”

Satisfied and no longer interested, in the fights,  Flanders thought to now resume his search for WhiteHouse.

In his silent thoughts of prayer, Flanders said to God, “I think that I have fallen in love with the girl, Father.”  He would remember her sweetly and romantically for the rest of his life.

And he turned away from the ring to leave the fights.

Behold the woman!

There was that foxy brunette cheerleader in black and yellow right at ringside!

Whoa!

And she right away began to talk to him!  And she said, “I saw you at the lake.  I like your unicorn.”

Flanders, flattered and exultant, said to her, “You saw me.  You like my unicorn.  How kind you are, O Miss.”  This was a dream girl talking to him now, and it was for real!

“My turn to fight is coming up pretty soon,” she said.  “Would you root for a cheerleader like myself?”

“You’re going in there?” he asked.

“Do you approve?” she asked.

“I surely do!” he said.  “I have never seen two women boxers in the ring before for real like this.”

“I might get hurt,” said the woman.  “Or then again, my opponent might be the one who gets hurt.”

“Did you ever box like this before?” asked Flanders.

“No,” she said.  “This is my first time.”

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“What made you to decide to do this?” he asked.

“This girl wanted to do something adventurous,” said the cheerleader about herself.  “I talked it over with my unicorn CasaBlanca.  And we decided that I would like to try women’s boxing.”

He looked at her long, lean arms.  “You look like you can throw a punch,” he praised her.

“Do you think that I look that I could take a punch?” she asked.

He looked at her broad wide chin.  “Oh.  I don’t know,” he said.

“You don’t?” she asked.

“I do say, Miss, your face is too pretty to get beat up in the ring,” he said.  “It would be hard for me to see you get worked over by another woman.”

“You really find me that attractive?” she asked.

“You’re a foxy lady of a cheerleader, Miss,” he told her.

“Well, sir.  Thank you,” said the woman.  “I’ll make sure not to disappoint you when my turn comes here.  It is soon.”

Then the girl held up her boxing gloves.  They were jet black.  They matched her hair.  And she said, “How does a woman go and put these kinds of things on?”

“I can help, I think,” said Flanders.

And he put the one glove upon her left hand, pushed it down over her wrist, and tied up the laces.  She said, “I wonder if I will end up getting my bell rung.”

“I think that you will ring the woman’s bell by the time you are done with her,” encouraged Flanders.

He then put the other glove upon her right hand, pushed it down over her wrists, and tied up the laces.  She said, “I wonder if she will strike my clock.”

And he said, “I think that you will strike her clock.”

She gazed upon her black boxing gloves for a long time.  He went on to ask her, “What are you

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thinking, pretty cheerleader?”

“I wonder if these hurt,” she said.

“I think that they might,” he said.

He could see the black cuffs of her cheerleader sweater covered up with the bottoms of the boxing gloves.

Then her spirit of adventure came back upon her, and she said, “But I can’t wait to find out.”

And she knocked her boxing gloves together the way boxers do before the big fight.

“I heard that all the fights today are only for one round,” said Flanders.

“I better give it my best shot,” she said.  “After today, I will put the gloves away and not do this crazy thing again.”

“Cheerleader lady, what’s your name?” he asked her.

“’Lisa,’” she said.  “Call me ‘Gravel.’”

“God be with you, Gravel,” he said.

“What’s your name, sir?” she asked.

“I am Flanders,” he told her.

“I think that I am next to fight, Flanders,” she said.  “I can’t wait.  This is going to be fun!  Amen!”

“Amen, Gravel!” he said.

And the foxy cheerleader stepped into the roped off amateur boxing area.  The crowd around Flanders was not large.  It was not a crowd looking for blood.  In fact it was a compassionate crowd wishing the fighters—men and women fighters—the best.  And the opponent also stepped out into this roped-off area.  She looked tough in her face, but not tough in her form or stature.  This Gravel looked beautiful and feminine in face and form and sure and confident in God in her eyes.

Then the announcer began, “Ladies and gentlemen of this amateur boxing day, in this fight we

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have two young ladies about to go at it against each other.”  And the little crowd clapped their hands in respect and kind regard to the two women first time prize fighters.  The announcer continued, “In this corner, weighing one hundred twenty pounds and standing five feet eight inches tall and dressed in the black and yellow cheerleader outfit, is ‘Lisa “Gravel” Peters.’”  The crowd gave forth good happy cheers, Flanders loudest of all.  Then the announcer said, “And in this corner, weighing one hundred ten pounds and standing five feet seven inches and dressed in blue jeans and blue shaker sweater vest and blue long-sleeved shirt, is ‘Sequoia Forest.’”  And the bell rang.  And the big fight began.  And it was all action right away, both fighters moving in and duking it out at close range.  And to Flanders, at first it looked like this fight would end real soon with a knockout for one or the other.  The gloves were flying all over with the two of them.  And Flanders cheered on Gravel.  The fierce boxing match did not let up.  The women were both throwing punches with both lefts and rights.  And Flanders began to see that all of these punches were without accuracy and without power.  The gloves mainly hit empty air.  Other times the gloves hit only gloves.  And the few times that the gloves did connect to the face or to the body, they did not hurt.  And Flanders could clearly see the difference in boxing here in an amateur match in contrast to a professional boxing match.  Before long, Flanders knew that no woman was going to go down in this women’s prize fight.  It was just like when he had seen the two men fight their amateur bout earlier here this day.  Nobody was going to be knocked out.  Amateurs cannot punch like professionals.  And this made him glad for Gravel.  She would not get hurt this day “in the ring.”  And the women pugilists continued their fierce and harmless punches.  Gravel’s face was all sweaty.  And her breathing was getting heavy.  And her arms were becoming weary.  And yet she was not hurt.  It was the same way for her opponent.  They were wearing out themselves throwing wild punches and not connecting.  And they were both trying their hardest.  And Flanders came to understand that a boxing match was a very exhausting thing for a woman or man to participate in—even for amateurs, who could not hit hard.  Then the bell rang.  And the fight stopped.  And Gravel leaned her body forward,

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put her gloved hands on her knees, and rested there, standing up and catching her breath.  And yet her face had gladness.  She had done it.  And it was all the fun of adventure that she had hoped it to be.  And when the announcer declared the winner, he proclaimed, “This bout ends in a tie.”

Lisa Peters came up to Flanders, and she asked, “Well, did you enjoy the fight?”

“I did,” he said.  “I never saw anything quite like it before.”

“I did, too, Flanders,” said Gravel.  “Now my spirit of adventure has had enough.”

“You still look like a foxy lady to me, Gravel.” he said.

“Even now after all of this?” she asked.

“Yeah, girl,” he said.

And now Gravel was breathing easy again, and her arms found strength again, and her sweating stopped dripping down her cheeks.  “Now what I do with these, do you think, Flanders?” she asked him, holding up her boxing gloves still covering her fists.

“Allow me to help you to take them off,” he said.

“Thank you, kind Flanders,” said Gravel.

And he untied the laces first of the one glove and pulled that glove off of her one hand.  Then he untied the laces of the other glove and pulled that glove off of her other hand.  “How’s that, Gravel?” he asked her.  “How do your hands feel now?”

“It feels good to feel the air upon my fingers again, Flanders,” she said.  “Thank you for helping me to take them off.”

“What are you going to do with them?” he asked.  “You should keep them.”

“I think that I shall keep them at that for a while,” she said.  “I’ll have to put them in a special place.”

“Could I keep them for a little while in a special place of my own, Gravel?” he ventured.

“You’ve got a crush on me.  Don’t you, Flanders?” she asked in wily flirt.  She cocked her head

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to the side at him in coquetry.

“Yeah.  I think that I do, Lisa.” he said to her.

“And not only on me, but you’ve also got a crush on my new boxing gloves, Flanders.  Isn’t that so?” she teased him in flirt.

“Yeah.  I think I do, Gravel,” he said to her.

“I shall give them to you,” she said.  “But you’ve got to promise me that you will go out with me steady.”

“I shall be most happy to go out with you steady, O Gravel,” he said.

“Then you can go ahead and take my boxing gloves for yourself,” she said.

“Would it bother you if I were to put them on sometime for myself?” he asked her.

“You flatter a young woman cheerleader,” she said.  “Do go ahead and put them on for yourself.”

“Right now?” he asked.

“Better sooner than later, Flanders,” she said.

He put on Gravel’s boxing gloves.  “This arouses me,” he confided to her.

“For now on, boyfriend, you can put these on and box ‘with yourself,’” said Lisa.

“This is so exciting that I feel like I am being naughty having these on,” he said

“They can be the symbol for us two of this day we first met,” she said.

“Gravel,” he said.  “these boxing gloves can mean even more than this our first day together, you know.”

“I know what you mean, Flanders,” she said.  “These can be even more so a token of the day that we became boyfriend-and-girlfriend.”

“Even more so than that, milady,” said Flanders.

She knew what he meant, and she said, “Boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-Christ, O Flanders.”

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And he replied a most affirmative “Boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord, O Gravel.”

He was born again.  She was born again.  He was living for Christ.  She was living for Christ.  He liked her a lot.  She liked him a lot.  It was good in Jesus’s eyes for them both to start dating each other.

This was how husband and wife had first met each other as Flanders saw it.

And this was how husband and wife had first found each other as Gravel saw it:  [The details were similar, but not identical.]

It was the day before, and Lisa and CasaBlanca were shopping at the store in big Green Bay.  “What a wild and crazy thing that you told your mistress to do, girl,” said the cheerleader.

“It will be something that you can tell everybody for years to come,” said her she-unicorn pet.

“To actually get in the ring against another woman,” exclaimed Gravel.

“You did tell me that you wanted to do something fun that was just for the sake of fun, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“’Amateur Boxing Day, Ashwaubomay Park, Tomorrow,’” she recited the sign from her memory.

“Well, look at all of these boxing gloves on the shelf, Mistress,” said her pet unicorn.  “I can see that they are all in boxes.”

“’Les gants de boxe,’” read Gravel the words on one such box. “What’s that mean?”

“It must be French,” said her she-unicorn.  “I don’t know French.”

And they looked over the selection.  “Red boxing gloves, brown boxing gloves, black boxing gloves,” the cheerleader went on to say.

“You should buy a pair that matches your cheerleader uniform,” said CasaBlanca.

“I don’t see any black and yellow gloves,” she said.

“I don’t see any that are just yellow, either, my mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

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“Then I’ll buy these just black ones,” said Gravel.

“Those will look go on you tomorrow,” said her unicorn.

“I want to look good when I step into the ring,” she said.

“Knock her out, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Will you be there and cheer me on, girl?” asked the cheerleader.

“I shall be there for you, watching and rooting for you, my mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“I won’t let you down, girl,” said Gravel.  “I will knock her down.”

And the next day the cheerleader rode her unicorn to the park.  And they went and found the place of these amateur bouts, and she registered and made all official.  But she hesitated putting on the boxing gloves.

“Why do you wait, Mistress?” asked her unicorn.

“I never threw a punch at anybody before in my whole life,” she said.

“Did you ever feel like hauling off and slugging someone before?” asked CasaBlanca.

“Yeah.  My two brothers,” she said.  “They got me mad a few times, sometimes Big Brother, sometimes Little brother.”

“Did they get it from you?” asked CasaBlanca.

“No.  I overcame my temptation,” said Gravel.  “But here I have to slug another lady.”

“How about your Big Sister?  Did you ever feel like hauling off and giving her a sock?” asked the pet unicorn..

“Yeah.  She made me mad a few times, too, girl,” said the cheerleader.

“Did she get punched?” asked CasaBlanca.

“No.  I turned to God and overcame the temptation,” said Gravel.

“Well, pretend that the girl in the ring is your sister who did you wrong, and hit her good for what ‘she’ did to you,” said CasaBlanca.

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“But I’m not mad right now,” said the cheerleader.

CasaBlanca pondered, then said, “Mistress, you did say that you came here to have some most novel fun.  I would say, ‘Just get in the ring and have the fun time of your life with this woman.’”

“That I will do, girl,” said Lisa Nickels.

“And the Lord have mercy on your pretty face,” teased her silly unicorn.

“She’s not going to lay a glove on my face,” said Gravel.  “Is she?”  The unicorn in mirth curved the edges of her equine lips upward.  “CasaBlanca, you’re smiling,” said Gravel.

“I am, Mistress,” she said.  Then the unicorn betrayed short little explosive vocal sounds from deep within.

“CasaBlanca, you’re laughing,” said Lisa.

“I am, Mistress,” said the unicorn.

“She’s going to sock me in the face.  Isn’t she?” asked Lisa.

“Don’t forget what you’re getting yourself into,” said her sagacious unicorn.

“Well, I am going to sock her in the face before she can sock me in the face,” said Gravel.

“Remember, fun fun fun,” said CasaBlanca.

“Fun fun fun, O girl,” said the cheerleader, ready now all the way for the amateur bout that she was going to experience.

Just then she saw a man.  He was a short man.  He was a thin man.  And he was a real cute guy.

“CasaBlanca,” said Gravel.  “Do you see that man over there?”

“The one with the bucket hat on?” she asked.

“Yes, him,” said the cheerleader.  “I saw him just a moment ago at this park over by the swimming lake.”

“Is he handsome?” asked the pet unicorn.

“Very handsome indeed, girl,” said Gravel right away.  “He smiled at me back there.  And I

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smiled right back at him back there.”

“He looks like he is looking around for something, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Or for someone,” said Gravel.

“Maybe for yourself, Mistress,” said the white unicorn.

“No way!” she said.  “You tease your mistress so, O CasaBlanca.”   And she said, “But a girl like myself would surely like that with such a guy as him.”

“Now he’s watching the men box,” said CasaBlanca.

“Now is my chance,” said Gravel.  And she took her big chance.  Her black boxing gloves were held against herself, one by one arm along her right side, and one by the other arm along her left side. She wasn’t sure what to say to a strange man, but she trusted God to give her the words.  And she came up to this man and asked him, “Are you the guy that I saw with a unicorn earlier today?”

“I am, at that, Miss,” he said to her.

“Such a noble white unicorn,” she said.  “I have one just like her for myself,”

“You are a unicorn keeper, too, Miss?” he asked.

‘Uh huh, sir,” she said.

“Our two she-unicorns would get along well together,…” he began.

And she finished his sentence, “…, If we started seeing each other.”

In her private contemplation about this new and exciting guy, Gravel thought to God in prayer, “So few men out there are truly handsome, and those that are handsome are lost in their sins.   And so few men out there who are truly born again and those that are are plain-looking.  But this guy is the cutest guy I have seen.  Maybe he is as saved as he is handsome, Lord.”

Then this guy said, “You look like you are going to be one of the boxers on this Amateur Boxing Day.”

“I thought that I would try it for my first time,” she said.  “I’m so excited and a little nervous.”

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“You make a foxy cheerleader and an irresistible woman boxer,” he went and told her.

“I do?  I really do?” she asked, giddy with this double praise that blew upon her like a gentle zephyr on a fall day.

“What’s your name?” he asked her.

“My name is ‘Lisa, “Gravel” Peters,’” she said.

“’Gravel,’ he tasted her name on his lips.  “Is that your middle name?”

“It is more like my nickname,” she said. “What’s your name?”

“Flanders Arckery Nickels.” he told her.

“Is ‘Arckery’ your middle name?” she asked.

“Aye.  It is,” he said with a nod of his head.

“Oh, it is time for me to get into the ring, cute Flanders,” she said.

Just then a strange white unicorn came walking up to them.  “I’m back, Master,” said this unicorn.

“Just on time like always, good WhiteHouse,” praised Flanders.

“Is this your gallant unicorn, Flanders?” asked Lisa.

“She is,” said Flanders.  And he introduced each to each other.

Just then another white unicorn came walking up here to be with them.  “Your big fight is very soon now, Mistress,” said this noble white she-unicorn.

“I am very sure of myself now, knowing that you will be here with me, O CasaBlanca,” she said to her.

“Gravel, this must be your unicorn,” said Flanders.

“She is,” said Lisa.  And she introduced CasaBlanca and Flanders to each other.

And then CasaBlanca and WhiteHouse bade each other good greetings in Christ.

Then the referee came up to her and said, “You’re next, Miss Peters.”

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And she went and had the time of her life, throwing punches and taking punches, and finding out all about what boxing gloves felt like, until she could fight no more.   Her body felt sore all over, and her face felt stings and smarts.  This boxing match was not without its share of pain.  But she knew that any pain she had now would go away before the next day.  And it felt good for her as a woman to have done this brave new thing that she had done.

And after her boxing match, she and Flanders talked again.  She found out that he was a born-again believer like herself.  And she told him that she were also a born-again Christian.  And one thing led to another.  And suddenly Lisa and Flanders had become girlfriend-and-boyfriend.  In honor of this first date they had here, she gave him her very own day’s boxing gloves to satisfy his strange fetish.  And here they now were, husband and wife and she-unicorn pet and she-unicorn pet, years later, living together as a family of four in the sand dunes of Beaver, Wisconsin.  This was how Gravel and Flanders had first met in the eyes of Gravel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XIX

“Well, Flanders.  Here we are…at our special lighthouse,” said Gravel.

“Our favorite lighthouse,” he said.

“It still looks the same, even now years later,” she said.

“Asylum Bay Lighthouse,” he said.

“A real asylum for the crazy used to be here,” she said.  “Long before our time.”

“This used to be called, ‘Carp Pond Lighthouse,’” said Flanders.

“There used to be a carp pond made up here,” she said.  “Also before our time.”

“Now this area is a park,” he said.

“Beautiful lighthouse,” she said.

“And beautiful island,” he said.

“And beautiful green of spring this day,” she said.

“And beautiful wooden footbridge to get here,” he said.

The cheerleader leaped and slapped her palm above her head against the exterior of this

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lighthouse and fell back down upon her sneakered feet.  “Can’t reach the top,” she said.

“It stands twenty-four feet high,” he said.  He then spread out his arms and put them around the lighthouse from where he stood.

“You cannot reach very far around it.  Can you, Flanders?” asked Gravel.

“This lighthouse measures eight feet around down here,” he said.

“How about at the top?” she asked.

“It measures six feet around up there,” he said.

“Was that as happy a day for you as it was for me?” she asked.

“Our wedding,” he said in reverie.  “It was indeed.”

“We got married here,” she said in reminiscence.

“I proposed to you here,” he said.

“We consummated our marriage in there,” she said.

“This lighthouse, Gravel,” he summarized.  “We became fiancé-and-fiancée here.  We became groom-and-bride here.  We became husband-and-wife here.”

What was the Asylum Bay Lighthouse all about?  It was built in 1937 on this island, and this island was man made.  It was between North Asylum Bay and South Asylum Bay in Wisconsin’s Lake Winnebago.  This lighthouse was the result of a project of the Works Progress Administration.  But it was rejected by the Department of Transportation as a navigational light for the lake.  Kerosene lanterns that could be seen twelve miles out into the water at night were sometimes used in this lighthouse.  But nothing permanent for light was put in for this lighthouse.  At one time, this lighthouse on the island had a copper-topped cupola that was seven feet high, in turn topped by a flagpole, making its total height to be forty-two feet tall.  In 2007 a four-thousand-dollar makeover was made upon this lighthouse by inmates of the Winnebago Correctional Institute.  Parts of the wooden lantern room were replaced, windows were outfitted, and the metal roof was rebuilt.  Also in that project the flagpole was

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replaced by a copper fish weather vane.  This lighthouse stood upon of what was now called Asylum Point Park, and it was in Winnebago County alongside the central western shore of Lake Winnebago.  And it was just northeast of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

“You looked like quite the fairy princess bride that day, Gravel,” he said in remembrances.

“I never wore a wedding dress before,” she said.  “I felt pretty special in it.”

“That was the only day I remember you not having on your cheerleader’s uniform,” he said.

“Was I a foxy bride in that, Flanders?” she asked.

“Just as you are a foxy cheerleader even now,” he said.

Her wedding gown was made of three different silks.  In the inner layer, there was silk Mikado.  In the middle layer, there was silk Gazar.   And in the outer layer, there was traditional silk.  The sleeves were long and puffed at the shoulders.  The waistline was a Basque waistline.  The train was as long upon the ground as the dress was tall upon the woman.  And her wedding veil covered her face and reached halfway down her back.  And covering her feet were white pumps with block heels.  And when this new bride had taken her first steps in this bridal dress, her feet tread upon her long skirt portion below, and she tripped up.  But then she thought to maybe hold up her bridal gown with her hands as she walked, making a safe way for her feet.  And doing this as she walked about, Gravel now knew how to walk safely about as a bride.

Every year at a certain time, a plague of lake flies from Lake Winnebago came upon this park and Oshkosh and the surrounding areas.  They neither bit, nor stung.  They were harmless.  And they were a nuisance in their great multitudes.  But at the time of the wedding here, lake fly season was already come and gone.  And not one lake fly intruded upon the wedding day.  And all went well for Gravel and her bridegroom.

For the wedding, bride and groom agreed on each having his or her own wedding march such that at the end of the march bride and groom would meet together in the middle right where Pastor

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Preamble and the lighthouse would be awaiting them.  She would march alone with CasaBlanca

from the beginning of the footbridge on the mainland, over the water, and upon the east side of the island and on up to the lighthouse.  In CasaBlanca’s saddlebags, she would have the wedding ring for the groom.  As for Flanders, he would march alone with WhiteHouse from the west side of the island through the tall grass and the trees and on up to the lighthouse.  In WhiteHouse’s saddlebags, he would have the wedding ring for the bride.  Neither bride nor groom having any romantic feelings for diamonds or gemstones, each had for the ceremony most unique and precious rings with no stones.  The bridegroom’s ring had a little solid square attached to it.  It was made of shiny copper.  And this copper was most expensive.  It had come from the weapon of a great griffin slayer of his day long ago.  This griffin slayer was known as “Tyrannus,” and he used a bow that fired arrows with copper arrowheads.  And a jeweler was able to melt down some of these extant and rare and famous copper arrow tips and make this ring with the square.  It was a great treasure for museum curators and historians, and it was most expensive.  And Lisa bought it for Flanders.. There were only a handful of them in circulation in America.  Overseas, none were available.   As for the bride’s ring, Flanders had one made that was the envy of collectors and jewel smiths. It was a brass ring with a solid brass octagon attached to it.  Her wedding ring was of a most rare brass that had come from the arrow tips of a crossbow soldier who slew griffins for God.  His name was “Laud,” and none of this current day had amassed the number of slain griffins that he had amassed.  And he never shared his brass or his artillery with just anyone.  He felt that he needed to save his brass for his calling as griffin-slayer.  But he had become acquainted with Flanders, a new and coming griffin-slayer himself.  And through Flanders, he had become acquainted with Gravel, herself also starting out as a griffin-slayer.  And he said to Flanders, “One griffin slayer ought to do service to another griffin slayer.  I give you five of my brass arrow tips.  Use them for whatever you wish.  But do not use them for slaying griffins.” And, having gotten the okay from the famous Laud, Flanders hired a jeweler to melt down this little bit of brass and

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to make a wedding ring out of it.   And this jeweler made a brass wedding ring with a solid brass octagon.  This Flanders had had made for Gravel. And Flanders showed this to his benefactor, and Laud was highly impressed.

Lisa Peters was at Asylum Point Park, looking across the little bay and seeing the little lighthouse there upon the island.  She was indeed the fairy princess bride for the day.  Flanders was at the far end of this island, amid the green tall grass and the somewhat scattered trees, and he could not see the lighthouse for the shrubbery.  And he was a gentleman dressed in all white everything top to bottom.  At Gravel’s right side stood CasaBlanca.  At Flanders’s right side stood WhiteHouse.  The deacon, standing along Pastor’s right side in front of the lighthouse in the clearing, blew a trumpet.

Then CasaBlanca replied with a toot on her unicorn horn.  And WhiteHouse replied also with a toot on her unicorn horn.  This was the summons for bride and groom to begin their wedding march toward the altar in front of the lighthouse.  And the bride mounted her unicorn, and the unicorn began to prance in great ceremony out onto the wooden footbridge.  And the groom mounted his unicorn, and his unicorn began to canter in great ritual out into the long green field.

This was what Lisa was feeling as the bride as she heard CasaBlanca’s hooves clomping upon the rustic and sturdy wooden footbridge that crossed this little inlet: “This is better than a ride in a horse drawn carriage.  How this bridge is for me the bridge between what was for me and what will be for me.  Right now this bridge is what is for me.  All of these vertical logs to both sides do hold up the bridge above the water.  They are firm and strong deep in the water underneath. They fortify the sides of the bridge.  They are sure and strong like the love I have for Flanders.  The horizontal beams serve as the rails of this bridge.  They number five—top to bottom– on the left and also on the right, all the way across.  They will keep me from falling down into the water.  My love for Flanders is for a man who will keep me from falling in my life’s walk.  And the little vertical beams that join the horizontal beams along these railings, one after another all across this bridge—they guarantee extra safety and

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protection for me on this bridge.  So, too, will Flanders, whom I love, keep me safe and protect me from danger and harm.  And the solid wooden platform beneath CasaBlanca’s hooves are solid and without space between boards.  This bridge platform will keep CasaBlanca from getting her hoof caught and twisting her fetlock.  My Flanders, whom I love, will be my foundation upon which I cannot get caught in a snare and harm myself.”  Just think, Miss Peters was about to become Mrs. Nickels.  Her wonderful guy in Christ was soon to become her partner-in-life.  Her boyfriend was soon to become her husband.   When she would get up every morning she would be with him.  When she would do her day’s activities she would be with him.  When she would do her night’s activities, she would be with him.  When she would turn in for the night, she would be with him.   When she were awake, he would be with her.  When she were asleep, he would be with her.  He would be with her in her dreams of the day.  And he would be with her in her dreams of the night.  He would lead the way for her in their walk in life together, himself in front of her.  She would follow him in their walk together of life, herself behind him.  She would be a follower of her man, as her man were a follower of Jesus.  Behold, she and CasaBlanca had crossed the bridge.  The Asylum Bay lighthouse was just off to the side to the left.  The deacon blew upon his trumpet again.  CasaBlanca stopped and tooted a tone upon her unicorn horn in reply.  Here came Flanders riding WhiteHouse from the other direction.

Upon hearing the initial trumpet blast from not far away, and upon WhiteHouse’s reply with a blast of her unicorn horn, Flanders and his she-unicorn began his wedding march to the altar up ahead at the lighthouse.  He was riding WhiteHouse upon a mowed trail in the pastoral beauty of nature here on the island.  This trail wound through scattered trees and tall field grass.  The grass of the trail itself was already somewhat tall, not having been mowed for some time, but it was not as tall as the grass to both sides of this trail.  From here he could not see the lighthouse, but he knew that it was near.  He thought most romantic reflections upon his new life with his wife soon to be.  Miss Lisa “Gravel” Peters was going to become Mrs. Lisa “Gravel” Nickels.  He was going to have a woman in his life

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for the rest of his life.  He would take care of Lisa as the “weaker vessel,” as the Bible called a man’s wife.  She would dote upon him for his every wish.  He would seek to please her in all things.  Female companionship in Gravel would keep him from ever feeling lonesome again.  Lisa would be for him “his woman.”  He would be for Lisa “her man.”  Life would abound in the fulness of romance with his newlywed bride.  His girlfriend, before this day was done, was going to be his partner-in-life, his helpmeet, and his lover.  This day he would soon come to know all of her.  And her mystery of femaleness this night he would finally discover in all of its mystique.  They would live together in the same place now.  They would be a family of four now with their two unicorns being for them, “their kids.”  Her cheerleader uniform would be in a bedroom closet that was both of theirs’ closet. This day’s wedding dress would be stored forever after today in a beautiful corner of this same closet.  They could take it out ever after and look at it and admire it and remember today with it.  They will go grocery shopping together.  They will do household chores together.  They will do yard work together.  They were soon to have their King James Bibles under the same roof now.  Their prayer meetings together were now going to be at the same home now as each other.   And they did not need to leave their apartments and go visit each other for their dates.  Every day was going to be a date for them in the same home.  And he would yet have WhiteHouse in his life, but now with Gravel as his first love.  Indeed WhiteHouse was going to get to know Gravel now all the better.  And Flanders would have her CasaBlanca now as one of their own.  He would get to know her, himself, all the better.  In this ardent reflection, Flanders saw his unicorn take a turn in this trail and come out onto the clearing at the end of this trail.  There stood the lighthouse, the wedding altar, just straight up ahead a short distance.  The deacon blew on his trumpet.  And WhiteHouse stopped and blew on her unicorn horn.  Along to the left now came Gravel, riding her white unicorn.

The comely bride dismounted her unicorn.  And the handsome groom dismounted his unicorn.

They came to each other, put their arm around each other’s arm, and marched the last few feet toward

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the lighthouse, where Pastor stood with his King James Bible.    And they stood before the pastor.

To Flanders, Gravel looked like an angel from Heaven, even though she had not yet gone to Heaven.  To Gravel, Flanders was a handsome devil, even though he was her “angel sent from God.”  The deacon then put down his trumpet and stood off to the side.  WhiteHouse stood behind her master here at the wedding altar; and here CasaBlanca stood behind her mistress.  The groom stood to the left. The bride stood to the right.  From the pastor’s viewpoint, the groom stood to the right, and the bride stood to the left.

Then Pastor said, “We are together here at this Carp Pond Lighthouse to join this man and this woman into marriage one with another.  Marriage is a holy institution ordained by God first with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden in the dispensation of innocence at the dawn of mankind.  Adam was God’s first man.  Eve was God’s first woman.  In Genesis 2:18, God says about this first marriage, ‘…,It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet for him.’  Furthermore, the Bible says about marriage in Genesis 2:24, ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.  This day God will join you two into the same holy bond of matrimony as He had Adam and Eve six thousand years ago.  God bless you, Flanders.  God bless you, Lisa.”

Then Pastor said, “Flanders, do you have your vows of love to say to Lisa ready?”

“I do, Pastor,” said Flanders.  Then he turned to Lisa, whose face was covered with her bridal veil.  “I do, Lisa,” Flanders said to her.  And she lifted her wedding veil up out of her face, and she did cock her head to the side before him, and she gazed upon him in love.  And he spoke of his love for Lisa:  “Fairest Gravel, when I see you in your beauty of God’s creation, I can clearly see that you are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ as it says in Psalm 139:14.  Even in my first days with you as my wonderful foxy lady of a girlfriend, I had come to see you as ‘God’s Crowning Triumph.’  Remember that time that you sang ‘The First Noel’ at church a Capella and quite solo just to make me happy?

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What joy in my soul.  What rejoicing in my spirit.  What magic in my heart.  What romance of love.  Therein I got to hear the prettiest girl in my life to sing the prettiest hymn in my life.  That was my happiest day with you at Marinette County Baptist Church.  Makes a guy want to say to you, Lisa, ‘Merry Christmas, Gravel.’ even here in the springtime at this lighthouse.  My ‘Gravel—the Fox,’ let us run away together with our unicorns to a magical place so like Heaven and settle down and live the conjugal life of marriage.  It can be a land of fields and woods, a land of sand and field grass, a land of countryside flora and fauna, a land up north, a place to call our own.  It can be a rural place where the four of us can live and grow and be happy in Christ together. It can be our paradise before Heaven.  It can be our land of God.  We can call it ‘God’s country.’  Run away with me, O my love.”  Thus said Flanders Nickels his love for Gravel at the altar.

Then Pastor asked, “Gravel, do you have your vows of love to say to Flanders?”

“I do.  And I did,” said the bride.  “But now I feel it best to speak impromptu for the crazy love I have for Flanders here at the altar at this lighthouse.  I would like to speak spontaneously now from my heart and from the Holy Spirit, if I could.”

“You may say them now, Lisa,” said Pastor.

And Lisa said, “Run away with you to paradise, O Flanders?  My love for you is so great that I could run away with you to purgatory, though there be no such true place.  From the very start, when we first met at that park in Ashwaubenon, I could see in you ‘Mr. Right.’ as we women like to call those of your gender.  And I had thought to myself, what title can I give to this real cute guy that only God and I would know about, a name that even CasaBlanca would not know, an epithet that I would tell no one until the day we got married?  I found the most à propos such designation one day in prayer. That little appellation I can now disclose.  You, Flanders, are to me, ‘my Michael and my Gabriel.’  You were a gentleman to me then, and you have been a gentleman to me ever since.  And you live your walk with Christ clearly showing Him as the Good Lord in your words and your thoughts and your

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actions every day ever since I’ve known you.  Yes.  Let’s run away together.  And let us take our unicorns.  We can run away together to a far away place.  We can run away together to a near place.  We can run away to the country.  We can run away to the city.  We can run away to somewhere in Wisconsin.  We can run away to a place outside of Wisconsin.  We can run away to the uttermost part of Earth.  We can run away to the uttermost part of Heaven.  Wherever you go, I shall go.  Wherever you are, I shall be.  And wherever you live, I shall live.  And wherever you grow old, I shall grow old.  And wherever you die, I shall die.  And wherever you are in the Millennial Reign on Earth, I shall be with you in the Millennial Reign on Earth.  Let us run away this day, my love, to the blessed days in our lives to come in the beatific days of eschatology for all believers past and present and future.  Or let us simply run away together to the countryside where life down here can be quiet and peaceful and restful for the rest of our temporal lives.  And we can wait there for the Lord to come and take us Home to Heaven in the rapture.  And so shall we be with the Lord.”  Thus did Gravel speak of her love extemporaneously for Flanders at the altar here before the lighthouse.

A thoughtful and tranquil moment passed now upon the wedding party.  Then Pastor asked Gravel’s unicorn, “CasaBlanca, do you give your mistress to Flanders as his lawfully wedded wife?”

CasaBlanca gave forth a single note of toot upon her unicorn horn, and she said, “I do, Pastor Preamble.”

Then Pastor turned to Flanders’s unicorn, and he asked her, “WhiteHouse, do you give your master to Lisa as her lawfully wedded husband?”

“Oh, that I surely do, Pastor Preamble,” declared WhiteHouse, adding to her statement a blast of one note on her unicorn horn as well.

“I now call upon the bridegroom and the bride to take up their wedding rings,” said Pastor.

And the unicorn keepers opened up their unicorns’ saddlebags and took out their rings.  Flanders now held to give to Gravel her ring of an octagon of rare brass.  And Lisa now held to give to

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Flanders his ring of a square of precious copper.

And the unicorns looked avidly upon the scene now.  This wedding was coming to its climax.

Their keepers were about to get married now next.

And Pastor looked upon the bride.  He asked her, “Lisa ‘Gravel’ Peters, do you take Flanders your groom to be your husband, to bow before him in your lives together, to build him up in all the years of your life, and to submit to his authority as the woman with the man of the marital union?”

“I do,” she said.

Pastor then looked upon the bridegroom.  He asked him, “Flanders Arckery Nickels, do you take Lisa your bride to be your wife, to love her in your lives together, to lead her all the years of your life, and to take due authority over her as the man with the woman of the marital union?”

“I do,” he said.

“You may now exchange rings,” said Pastor.

Flanders slipped her wedding ring over the index finger of her right hand.  Gravel slipped his wedding ring over the index finger of his right hand.

And the good Baptist pastor then declared, “By the authority granted unto me by the state of Wisconsin, as the pastor of Marinette County Baptist Church. I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Nickels, husband and wife, man and helpmate.”

Her veil still lifted out of her face since the exchange of vows of love earlier this wedding ceremony, she gazed upon her newlywed husband, and he gazed upon his newlywed wife.

And Pastor said, “You may now kiss the bride.”

And they drew toward each other, closed their eyes, and kissed each other on the lips as the first moment of romance upon their marriage.  Then they hugged each other long and hard as the second moment of romance upon their marriage.  Then he picked up his bride and carried her off as their third moment of romance upon their marriage.

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Indeed even WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca did not see their keepers for the rest of the day until the next morning.

All of this day of their wedding did Flanders and Gravel reminisce over here once again at their lighthouse years later.

“It was kind of nice remembering like this together, you and I, without our pets,” said Gravel.

“A good husband and a good wife need to be alone sometimes to tell husband-and-wife things,” he said.

“Where are they now, do you think?” she asked.

“They told me that they were going out for some fun time in the lake,” he said.

“Lake Winnebago may be a large lake for sure,” she said.  “But I heard that it is a quite shallow lake, also,”

“Do you see all the algae?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said.  “It is also a dirty lake.”

“Our unicorns might have to jump into Left Foot Creek to get clean again when we get back home,” said Flanders.

“Why, our white unicorns are liable to turn green playing around in all of this algae as they are,” said Gravel.

“Tell them that they are dirty and green and they will be glad to jump into the creek behind the cabin,” he said.

“Unicorns need to be white,” said Lisa.

“Unicorns take utmost pride of their white coats,” said Flanders.

“Only their horns do they take more pride in than their whiteness,” said the cheerleader.

“I miss WhiteHouse,” said Flanders.

“And I kind of wish that CasaBlanca were back,” said Lisa.

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“Shall we summon them?” he asked.

“I hope they miss us, too,” said Lisa.  “Let’s summon them.”

And Flanders clapped his hands in Morse code the word, “Come.”  This was “a long and a short and a long and a short,” then “three longs,” then “two longs,” then “one short.”

As for Gravel, she gave forth whistles as one would send a text message on a flip phone.  She summoned her unicorn by way of voice and whistle, saying, “Two” with three whistles, saying “Six” with three whistles, saying, “Six” with one whistle,” and saying, “Three” with two whistles. This called forth the same summons as Flanders had called forth, “Come.” Wherever her unicorn might be, if she were near, she would hear and come.

“I hope they heard us,” said Flanders.

“It’s great to be alone, and it’s great to be together,” said Gravel.

“We are family,” agreed Flanders.

“We four all love one another,” said the cheerleader.

Just then two dirty unicorns began to climb up onto the bank from out of the water on the other side of the lighthouse.

“I have come, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“I have heard your beckoning, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“What have you two unicorns been doing?” asked Flanders in mirth.

“We two were having water fights,” said WhiteHouse.

“We were playing unicorn games in Lake Winnebago, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Were you two having fun?” asked Gravel.

And CasaBlanca said, “We were having the time of our life.”

“Were you two having fun?” asked WhiteHouse.

“We were,” said Flanders.  “We were having the time of our life, too.”

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In wisdom, WhiteHouse said, “Sometimes unicorn keepers need to get away from their unicorns once in a while.”

And Gravel went on to say in her own enlightenment, “And sometimes unicorns need to get away from their keepers once in a while.”

CasaBlanca then went on to say, “But I missed you, Mistress.”

And Flanders said, “And I missed you, WhiteHouse.”

“I’m glad you’re back, CasaBlanca,” said Gravel.

“And I’m glad to be back with you, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“Let’s all go back home,” said Lisa Nickels.

“There’s no place like home,” said Flanders.

“We are ready to go back home now,” said the unicorns.

“We will ride you two back home,” said Gravel.

“Thank you both for taking us out here,” said Flanders.

“I feel like galloping,” said CasaBlanca.

“I feel like running like the wind,” said WhiteHouse.

“You both are not very white right now,” teased the cheerleader.

“I won’t say it,” said Flanders, everyone here knowing what he wouldn’t say.

But Lisa said it anyway, “You are both a little green today.”

“Ouch, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“For saying that, Gravel, the first thing that I’m going to do when I get home is to run to the cabin down the road and jump into the creek,” said WhiteHouse.

“That goes for me, too, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

And the family all laughed, and the four all began their trip back home to the sand dunes.

 

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CHAPTER XX

Between the sand dunes and the country road of the front yard of the family of God in Beaver was a field of wild scrub and sharp plants and rough blades of green grass.  It was not a part of the yard that any of the family ever spent time in.  Who would go and play or worship or rest around in this incommodious field with the sand dunes right behind it??  If the family went outside into the yard, they would go to the side yards or the back yard or to this sand dunes out front.  But not in this wilderness patch of yard by the road.

Today was Saturday.  This field of weeds was quiet and forgotten once again.  In Old Testament times Saturday was for the Jews “the Sabbath.”  And the Sabbath was the day of rest for the Jews.  They were to honor the Sabbath as the seventh day and to do no work that day, but to rest from their labors.  Today was Saturday many centuries later.  And this field on this day was to soon become a place of utmost unrest.

In this church age now in the times of the Gentiles, born-again believers honor the first day of the week,. Sunday was now the day to set aside for God.  Christians went to church on Sundays.  And they call Sunday “the Lord’s Day.”  But today was going to come upon this field of weeds, “a day of

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the Lord.”  Judgment was going to fall upon evil.  And the “day of the Lord” was not at all “the Lord’s day” by definition.

The sun shone down upon this rustic field.  The wind blew upon its flora.  The wind blew upon its fauna.  Clouds passed across the sun, and shade came upon this field.  And there was something in the air in here where no man was. The little animals became nervous.  The birds began to call forth.  The big animals looked about in apprehension.  And a cool wind came upon this scrub field.  Then the little animals fled the field, ran across the road and escaped the field.  Then the birds one by one began to fly away from here to get away.   Big animals sought to escape for their life.  And now no animal life remained in this little patch of yard.

Just then gallant WhiteHouse came running up into this field in panic and great hurry.  And she declared to no one here, “Tidings from the east!  The griffins are coming!”

Right after that, in came valiant CasaBlanca in great haste, saying to WhiteHouse, “Tidings from the west!  Our dire hour is coming upon us!”

Right then in came Gravel in run, saying to WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca, “Tidings from the south!  This is God’s day of reckoning upon the Devil!”  She held her sickle tightly against her breast.

Right then in came running Flanders, saying to WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca and Lisa, “Tidings from the north!  Our last battle is imminent!”  And he clutched his scythe in both hands.

And the four looked up into the skies in all directions to see if the griffins were here yet.

They saw none right now.   They then looked upon Flanders.

And Lisa said, “You are our commanding officer, Flanders.”

“God will be my Commanding Officer,” he said.  “Let us have a word of prayer right now before they come.”

And he led in verbal prayer, praying for the will of the Lord to be done in this battle soon to come upon them.

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Then they saw them.  There were six of them.  And they came from six different directions.  And though they were coming individually, they still came en masse.  They came as princes of the power of the air.  They came as gods of this world.  They came as unclean spirits.  They came as demons.  They came as fallen angels.  Hence these six foul and avenging gray griffins.  And they drew near from above and lighted upon the ground around them and gaped upon them from where they stood.  These griffin troops had strategically surrounded the forces of good in a hexagon shape, each griffin now standing at one of the six vertices of a hexagon around them.  In massing his troops, Flanders commanded them to form a square, for them to put themselves upon the four corners of a square, himself included.  And the square was within the hexagon.  The forces of good were courageous in Christ.  The forces of evil were drooling in revenge.  In shame the demons no longer had their lion tails to complete them as griffins.

Then one of the griffins said, “You remember us, Flanders.”

“I do.  How can I forget?” said Flanders.  Then, pointing with his index finger from griffin to griffin, he said to them one by one, “You are ‘Ruins.’  You are ‘Wrecks.’  You are ‘Crushes.’  You are ‘Breaks.’  You are ‘Destructs.’  You are ‘Destroys.’”

And the six griffins all said as one, “And you are Flanders and Gravel and WhiteHouse and CasaBlanca.”

One of the griffins said, “You took away my lion tail.  I shall take away your life.”

Another griffin said, “When a Christian soldier cuts off a griffin’s tail, he, in effect, trades his life for that tail.”

Another griffin spoke and said, “Woe unto the woman with a sickle.  Her life and her sickle will I make forfeit for what she did to my tail.”

Another griffin went and said, “For the man who took away my dignity with his scythe, I will grab his scythe out of his hand and cut off his tailbone.  I have lost a tail.  He shall lose a tailbone.”

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And another griffin said to them, “WhiteHouse, I shall swipe off your horn from your head with my eagle talons.”

And another griffin said, “CasaBlanca, your equine form will also become tailless when I finish with you.”

Gravel spoke and said, “Come here and get it from me then!”

CasaBlanca said, “Try it.”

And WhiteHouse said, “I dare you.”

Flanders then spoke to his troops and said, “Answer the griffins not with words.  They know words better than we do.  If we have a war of words with demons, we shall lose.  But if we have a war of battle with them, we will win.”

And his comrades grew silent and waited upon him for what to do.

And Flanders Nickels told his battle strategy to the army of good:  “God has told me that we are to stand by upon God.”

“Just stand by?” asked Gravel.

“Yes,” said Flanders.  “But do so in Christ.”

“Do we still fight?” asked WhiteHouse.

“We shall defend ourselves where we stand,” said Flanders.

“Do we use offense?” asked CasaBlanca.

“No.  Use only defense,” said Flanders.

“What will happen from such a battle tactic as this?” asked Gravel in good faith.

“We shall see, as it were, the walls of Jericho coming down upon our six griffin foes if we obey God,” said Flanders.

“Amen, Husband!” said the cheerleader.

“Amen!” said the other two unicorns.

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“God will have more to tell me later,” said Flanders.

Then one of the griffins proposed to her fellow griffins, “Let’s go for the top.”

“The head!  The head!” another griffin readily agreed.

“We can break their heads in,” said another.

“We can poke holes into their skulls,” said another.

“We can tear up faces,” said another.

“We can spill out their brains,” said another.

“We can give them concussions,” said another.

“We can take out eyes,” said another.

“We can eat noses,” said another.

“We can fracture skulls of man and woman and unicorn,” said another.

“We can break off horns from foreheads,” said another.

“It all starts with the head,” said the first griffin.  “After that, we will win our battle for our master.”

Though this battle rally was meant mainly to scare the warriors of good, it only served to make the warriors of good to lean all the more on the Almighty God Who had promised through Flanders to fight this battle Himself.  The soldiers of God knew only that the griffins had made their mind up now to attack their heads as griffins attack—through their beak, through their eagle claws, through their lion paws.  All that was the griffins’ focus was their heads and no other parts of their bodies.

Flanders then gave battle commands, saying, “Cover your heads.”

And the griffins declared officially now among themselves, “Attack!”

And this battle of good vs. evil began with a furious assault by six she-griffins.

One griffin sought to peck Flanders hard on the top of his head with her eagle beak.  But the man of God had his scythe held up above his head in both hands.  And the griffin struck the edge of the

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blade of the scythe with her beak accidentally and cut off her own lower beak.

Another griffin thought to swing her eagle leg and to knock the sickle out of Gravel’s right hand that Gravel held in front of her face.  But, in so doing, this griffin accidentally knocked the blade of this sickle into the side of her own eagle head.  And the griffin suffered a bad cut from the sickle against her ear.  And the sickle was still in Gravel’s hand.

Another griffin going for the head grabbed a hold of WhiteHouse’s unicorn horn at its base. This she-griffin held on hard to this horn with both sets of eagle claws, and she began to try to twist off this horn from the head of WhiteHouse.  The she-unicorn simply thrust forward her unicorn horn where she was standing, and it impaled this griffin’s one eye, and put out that griffin eye.  The griffin quickly let go of that unicorn horn and screeched.

Another griffin grabbed a hold around the nose and mouth and teeth of CasaBlanca with her griffin lion paw.  And this griffin went ahead to squeeze in around the mouth of this unicorn warrior with the strength of her lion leg.  CasaBlanca raised her fore leg, and with her fore hoof she boxed this griffin in its forehead.  This griffin let go and fell down in a daze.

Another griffin then went on to face the man with the sharp scythe.  She lashed out with her lion paw toward his face to maul his visage.  But her strong lion muscles hit the scythe’s handle instead.  And the scythe was torn out of Flanders’s double grip.  And yet as it got knocked asunder thus, the blade of the scythe scraped across the front of the throat of this griffin.  Temporarily taken out of the battle, this griffin could do nothing more for now but allow Flanders to go and pick back up his scythe.

And another griffin decided to bat at Gravel’s face that the girl was protecting with her sickle held right up against her own nose.  The griffin was swiping little bats with her left eagle claw of many talons.  But whenever she aimed for Gravel’s face, she kept missing the face and batting the sickle instead.  And the sickle blade kept batting back at the face of the griffin instead.  And she incurred numerous cuts to her own eagle face.  She had to back away and stop. Her own face was cut up now.

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Behold, the griffins’ battle tactics to go for the heads of the people and the unicorns backfired upon all six griffins in this battle.  With this declared strategy that they were going to focus on attacking only heads, they gave away a one-dimensional battle plan.  And Flanders knew how to defeat this.

And that was simply to have himself and his allies to cover their heads and not to take thoughts upon any other parts of their bodies that were not heads.  And God protected the heads of the soldiers for good.  And, lo, it was the heads or near the heads of these very griffins that got wounded in this battle.

Their revenge redounded against them tit for tat.  And not one head of any of the four soldiers of good suffered one blow.

But griffins were resilient soldiers.  And they regrouped.  And they plotted new strategy.  And they had much fight yet in them for more battle.  They had fuel from the Devil in their hearts.  And the Devil is the man of God’s worst enemy.

Then one of the griffins said, “The bottom!  Let’s go after the bottom!”

Going after the top had not worked for the griffins.  Maybe going after the bottom might work better for them.

“The bottom?” asked Flanders.  His thoughts turned to God for His strategy.

“Yeah,” said another griffin.  “Let’s tear off some feet!”

“Let’s snack on men’s and women’s toes,” said another griffin.

“I would like to pull off some hooves from some fetlocks.” said another griffin.

“I feel like hocking a couple of unicorns right now,” said another griffin.

“They can’t walk if they lose their feet,” said another griffin.

“Nor can they run away if they lose their feet,” said another griffin.

“Why, then, they cannot even stand up,” said another griffin.

“Be they biped or quadruped,” said another griffin.

The Holy Spirit told Flanders what to do now in this new part of the battle.  And Flanders

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told them, “Continue standing by in our Lord.  And cover your feet.”

And the band of four courageous soldiers of God rallied together in obedience to God and in good sound faith in their Deliverer.

Flanders lowered his scythe to the ground and laid the blade upon the earth in front of his feet.

Lisa bent over forward and stretched out her arm and held her sickle in front of her two ankles. WhiteHouse lowered her unicorn horn to the level of her knees to protect her hooves and ankles.  And CasaBlanca stretched her head and unicorn horn forward at shoulder level, ready to strike at any griffin who wished to go after her hooves and ankles.

And once again the six griffins charged and unleashed a fierce assault as griffins do.  And once again God turned the tide of the battle in this part to the favor of the army of good.  The six griffins focused only this time upon the bottoms of the man and the woman and the she-unicorns.  And, in going after the feet, the griffins themselves got wounded in their own feet.  One griffin got a scythe blade cut across her eagle leg at her wrist and her whole eagle claw of talons was severed completely.  One griffin got cut badly by a sickle across her lion paw and lost three lion claws.  One griffin suffered a unicorn horn cut that tore apart one lion claw from another inside the paw, but did not sever the claws from the paw.  One griffin suffered a stamp of a unicorn hoof upon her eagle leg that crushed her whole eagle claw where it remained upon her eagle leg.  One griffin accidentally stomped upon the scythe with her lion leg, and the whole underside of her lion paw was gashed.  And another griffin in her aggression found that she now had a sickle stuck in her lion ankle.  She bravely pulled it out and almost fainted away in battle.  And Lisa quickly grabbed back up her sickle.

Once again the griffins had given away their battle tactics by having talked about it in boasting among themselves in front of the army of God.  This was another strategy of only one dimension.  And all that Flanders and his allies had to do was to protect their feet and ankles and not have to protect any other parts of their bodies.  And not one foot or hoof or ankle or fetlock among God’s warriors here in

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the wild field by the road was wounded or even fazed in battle.  And yet every griffin now had wounds in their eagle talons or in their lion paws, some wounds major.  They had gone after the bottoms of their foes, and they themselves were wounded in their bottoms as griffins.  And the griffins looked to be losing this final battle against Gravel and her protectors.

But the Devil’s six griffins hated God just as the Devil hated God.   And they were not cowards.

They were this time willing to die in their unholy cause against God and against what is good.  The real reason for this battle was over the souls of Gravel’s immediate family.   And the Devil had put into the hearts of all of his demons to make sure that they take souls with them down to Hell when they go down to Hell.  And these six griffins still had those nine souls yet lost in their sins.  Were they to win this final battle against the cheerleader, and the cheerleader and her husband and their two pets were to die, then the cheerleader’s family could not help but end up going down to Hell in their time to come.  For if these two Christians were to die in battle today, then there would be no one around who could keep telling these nine loved ones about Jesus and who could keep warning them about Hell.  And the cheerleader’s whole family would be doomed.  And that would make the Devil and his six griffins here very, very happy.  Inspired by this to the point of mania, the griffins rallied for another charge.

And one griffin proclaimed, “The middle!  Let’s get their middle this time!”

Going after the tops did not work.  Going after the bottoms did not work.  The griffins now sought to go after the middles.

Temporarily disconcerted, Gravel said, “Our middles?  Do you griffins mean above the belt or below the belt?”

The six wicked griffins looked upon one another, then looked upon the cheerleader.  And they grinned with wiles and in guile.  And they laughed a lascivious griffin laugh through their closed beaks.

That answered Gravel’s question for all four of the four Godly warriors.

And Flanders said once again, “Allies, let us just stand by in Christ.”  Then he had to say to

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them, “And protect your nether regions.”

And a third part of today’s battle commenced.  And the demon griffins went after the middles of the soldiers of good.  And the demons got all manner of wounds in their own middles in their attack.  And God’s man and woman and she-unicorns were kept completely safe in their own middles by the protecting arm of God Almighty.  And when this third assault of today’s battle against the six griffins was done, the griffins all had hernias in their lower abdominal regions of their lion half.  They could fight no longer.  They lost the battle.  They had to flee.  But they could not run away on foot.  Nor could they fly away back into the air.  Nor could they defend themselves anymore against the scythe and the sickle and the unicorn horns and the unicorn hooves.  All six griffins were maimed in their tops and in their bottoms and in their middles.  And not one of the soldiers of Jesus had even one wound in top or in bottom or in the middle.  Jesus Christ had fought for His cheerleader mightily and gloriously and had given His soldiers consummate victory with them hardly striking one blow or swinging one weapon.  And the six griffins now feared rightfully for their lives.  And they rallied mightily and began to try to crawl away.

“My son,” called down God from Heaven, “see how the griffins do struggle to flee and to get away.  Strike them with the Word of God which I tell you.  Smite them with my blood atonement verses which I shall tell you of.  And, My daughter, fortify your husband’s declared verses with your proclaimed references to these verses.  And see the great acts of the Lord your God Who fights for you and with you.  This day shall six griffins fall in battle and trouble you no more, O Gravel.  Beloved Gravel, I have heard your prayers.  I have seen your tears.  I have looked upon your lost family.  By tomorrow at this time your family will be lost no more.   For they shall be saved.  Behold the sand dunes before this last battle is fulfilled here in the field.”

Gravel looked out upon the sand dunes.  Today they were her favorite part of her yard.  Tomorrow they should surely become her Xanadu of her Dream of Dreams thus consummated.

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Then God spoke down from Heaven, “Flanders, regard Ruins.  Smite her with Revelation 12:11.”

Flanders, in obedience, looked upon Ruins, and he said, “Ruins, who ruins Christian testimonies, it is written, ‘And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.’”

“Ruins, thus is it written in God’s Word, Revelation 12:11,” uttered the cheerleader.

And the griffin fell down in a heap and did not move.

“Is she dead?” asked CasaBlanca.

“I’m going to find out,” said WhiteHouse.  And the two unicorns came up to Ruins to check her out.

And WhiteHouse confirmed it, “The griffin is dead, Master.”

“Really dead, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“I knew so,” said Flanders.

“I thought so, too,” said Gravel.

There remained five moribund griffins, still creeping feebly upon the ground to get away.

And God commanded, “Flanders, take a look at Wrecks.  Strike her down right now with I Peter 1:18-19.”

“Wrecks,” said Flanders, looking upon her now.  “You have wrecked many Christian marriages.  It is written, ‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”

And Gravel finished this off with saying, “Is it not written for mankind thus in I Peter 1:18-19?”

Wrecks stopped her crawling and rolled over and moved no more.

CasaBlanca said, “I’m going to see if she is dead, too.”

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“She must be,” said WhiteHouse.

CasaBlanca checked out this sprawled griffin.  She was dead.  CasaBlanca nodded her unicorn head to WhiteHouse.  WhiteHouse nodded her unicorn head back to CasaBlanca.

“She’s dead,” said the cheerleader in proclamation.

Now only four griffins were left, all dying slowly.

Then God said to Flanders, “My worthy griffin-slayer, take notice of Crushes. Smite her with

Leviticus 17:11.”

And the man of God now turned to Crushes.  And he said, “I say unto you, O Crushes, you who have crushed many Christian warriors, ‘It is written, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”’”

“As it is written in Leviticus 17:11,” declared Gravel.  Christ’s shed blood on the cross atoned for all mankind’s sin throughout all dispensations.

And Crushes shook violently where she stood.  Then she fell hard upon her side.  And she moved no more.

“I need not go look to see if she’s dead,” said CasaBlanca.

“She is very dead,” agreed WhiteHouse.

“Smitten dead by the Word of God,” said the cheerleader.

This griffin indeed fell dead in battle.

That left three living griffins who were going to be alive not much longer.

Then God called down from Heaven again, saying to Flanders, “My gallant soldier, now look out upon Breaks.  Strike her dead right now with Romans 5:9.”

And Flanders now regarded faint Breaks.  And he proclaimed, “Breaks, you have broken many Christian men’s and women’s spirits.  It is written, ‘Much more then, being now justified by his blood,

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we shall be saved from wrath through him.’”

And Lisa Nickels finished off this griffin, proclaiming, “It is written indeed in Romans 5:9.”

And the griffin Breaks stood still, grew stiff, and fell slowly down upon her face.  And she lay there most awkwardly now surely dead.

“She’s dead,” said WhiteHouse.

“Just like the others who got hit, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

That left now only two griffins, who would not get far in their compromised flight from battle.

Then God called down from His throne saying, “Good Christian soldier Flanders, turn your eyes upon Destructs now.  Go now and smite her with Ephesians 1:7.”

And Flanders turned to look upon Destructs.  And he said to her, “Destructs, have not you made destruction out of good Baptist churches?  I say unto you now, ‘It is written, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;’’’”

And the cheerleader went on to cap off this Word of God according to the will of God, “As it is written in Ephesians 1:7, O Destructs.”

And Destructs was thrown down hard upon the ground on her belly.  And her head fell down hard to the ground right after.  And her eyes were closed.  And she was motionless.  She was dead, slain thereby in battle.

There was now only one griffin left to slay in battle.  And she was next to fall in battle.  And she knew it.

And God said to Flanders from Above, “My good and faithful son, take one last look at the living Destroys.  You shall not see her living after this which is to come.  Strike her dead now with Colossians 1:14.”

And Flanders turned and regarded Destroys.  And he said to her, “Destroys, as you have sought to destroy my wife’s family, so shall God destroy you now.  It is written, ‘In whom we have redemption

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through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.’”

“Colossians 1:14 is it thus written,” finished off Gravel this battle.

This last griffin collapsed straight down to the ground, her two lion legs and her two eagle legs buckling from underneath herself.  And she was dead as well.

Now the six griffins who had sought to prevent Gravel’s life dream of Dream of Dreams from fruition were all perished and their spirits and souls cast down to Hell never to get out.  They could tell her loved ones lies no more.   They could harden her loved ones’ hearts no more.  They could blind her loved ones’ minds no more.

At once, the cheerleader threw herself into Flanders’s open arms.  And she said to him, “Thank God.  Thank God.  Thank God.”

And he said in quiet fervor, “Amen.  Amen.  Amen.”

And they held each other in each other’s arms for a long and passionate while.

Xanadu was now a life’s prayer about to be answered, “Yes,” by the Saviour of the world.

As man and wife hugged in the Lord, CasaBlanca came up to her mistress’s side and nestled her unicorn head against her mistress’s head in love.  In like did WhiteHouse her head with her master’s head.  This was the most exultant moment that Gravel had ever shared with her family of four here at this place with the sand dunes.

Now she turned to look at the sand dunes right next to this battlefield, where evil lost its last battle against good in her life.   Then she looked out upon this wild field that they four stood in.  There lay six dead and rotting and stinking griffin carcasses.

She said dutifully, “We need to clean up our yard, Flanders.”

The three others agreed.

“We have to go about and bury them,” said Flanders.

“I’ll go and get some shovels, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

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“They’re in the utility room,” said Flanders.

“How many should we get?” asked CasaBlanca.

“I would say two,” said Flanders.

And WhiteHouse ran in to get them.  And CasaBlanca said, “Well, Mistress, ready for some digging?”

“Much digging,” said Flanders.

“We unicorns will use our horns,” said CasaBlanca.

All this while, the cheerleader was smiling and not saying anything.  Then WhiteHouse came back with two shovels held up on her unicorn horn by their metal handles at the top.

And Flanders began to dig six graves with his shovel.  And the two unicorns began to help scoop away dirt from the graves with their pointed horns.  But Gravel stood there, holding her shovel, but not digging any graves.  And she was still smiling and saying nothing.

Then Flanders said, “Wife, won’t you help dig?”

Then, still smiling, she spoke, saying, “Hubby, cannot the God Who slew my six griffins also not bury my six griffins?”

Her faith in the Lord convicted Flanders of the error of his ways.  She was right.  He was wrong.

And he confessed, “Great is your faith, O Gravel.  I looked to Jesus when the battle came upon us, and He gave us victory in battle.  But I did not look to Jesus to take care of the griffins after the battle was won.”

And the cheerleader said, “To God be the glory for the slaying of my griffins.  To God be the glory also for the burying of my griffins.”

And Flanders put down his shovel.  And Gravel tossed her shovel aside in a show of proven faith.  And the unicorns lifted up their horns from the earth.  There lay about in this field six dead

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griffins.

Then Flanders said, “I should have prayed before I picked up the shovel.  Let us pray that God clean up our yard of its wickedness lying about.”

And he prayed for the four of them here.  And he prayed that God bury these griffin carcasses in the way He willed.

And, lo, six little earthquakes came upon the tectonic plates below the ground here in the wild field of battle.  And, lo, the earth opened up six great pits right underneath the six griffins.  And, lo, the six griffins fell down into the six pits.  And, lo, the earth closed back up again upon the griffins in its six great pits.  Lo, the griffins were thus buried in their graves by the God Who can do all things.  And all was suddenly clean and holy and pure here in their pastoral front yard.

Then Flanders had the family to gather together again in prayer meeting.  And all four prayed in their turns great abundant thanksgivings for God and His deliverance.

And God looked down from Heaven, and He smelled their prayers as unto an “odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God,” thus comparing the prayers of His four here with the giving of money to the saints for the Lord’s work in Philippians 4:18 in the first century church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XXI

The cheerleader in black and yellow, her pom poms held against her hips with her arms akimbo, stood alone now in the sand dunes of her anticipated Dream of Dreams.  Her whole family for whom she had been praying for years had agreed to come to her sand dunes all at once and to pray and accept Christ all at once.  This day Lisa “Gravel” Nickels and her loved ones were going to find themselves in Xanadu.  The sun was beginning its rise in the sky, and it was deep red and halfway above the horizon.

All nine had said to her that they would be here at her sand dunes between afternoon and evening according to the sun.  Gravel was very early.  She needed to spend all day with God this day before the great miracle of God would take place upon nine very dear souls.  She stood underneath the lone little tree of this sand dunes.  She then put down the pom poms, knelt down upon the sand, and went ahead to scoop up a handful of sand, and she let it fall through her fingers back upon the sand dunes from where it had come.  She then looked up.  Behold, a buck of many points walked past her right here where she knelt.  She watched him as he strolled by.  He looked at her with no fear of humankind in his eyes.  He knew the Lord.  She could see it in his eyes.  Then he approached a woods at the edge of

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these sand dunes, turned back to show wisdom in his eyes upon her, then walked out into the forest and was gone.  Just then there arose the sound of the calls of many hawks right above her head where she was kneeling.  She looked up into the little tree.  Lo, all the branches full of hawks of God.  And in their callings forth Gravel could hear a language that they and their Maker could understand.  Then all of the hawks flew out and away from the tree.  And the hawks were gone.  Then Gravel saw a coyote chasing a rabbit across the sand of these broad sand dunes.  They both ran by right in front of her where she knelt.  She could see the glory of God in their instinct given them by God—the instinct of the predator and the instinct of the prey.  Then she saw a bald Eagle calling forth, and she looked.  And this great symbol of her country filled her heart with patriotism and with the wisdom of the Wise Designer.

And her eyes got a little watery when she saw this majestic bird fly by right past her, just as they were wont to do when she heard the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  God made America great.  These four supernatural happenings seemed familiar to Gravel.  Where had she seen such things before?  Yes, Flanders.  She had heard it from him.  He had told her of the very same things happening to him at these very same sand dunes that first time that he had come to these sand dunes alone.  He had seen a wise buck, a bunch of hawks in this tree, a coyote chasing a rabbit, and a flying American Bald Eagle.  And she had just witnessed the same thing for herself alone here a part of a lifetime later.  God was here in the sand dunes now in a way like never before.  Spooky things were happening, and they were good spooky things.  And even greater things were going to happen here in these sand dunes before night would fall.

The sun was orange now, and it was all above the edge of the horizon.

Then her fond unicorn friend, Flanders’s WhiteHouse, came up to her to be with her in her friendship and confidance.  Gravel picked up her pom poms and stood back up, herself glad to see her.

WhiteHouse said to her, “Gravel, today’s the big day.”

“It is, pretty WhiteHouse,” said Gravel.

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“Indeed the happiest thing that ever happened for you,” said WhiteHouse.

“Second to my first day of my salvation, girl,” said Gravel.

“Are you nervous?” asked WhiteHouse.

“That I am, O good girl,” said Gravel.

“Could I be of any help for you in your work today?” asked WhiteHouse.

“I could use your much prayer,” said Gravel.  “I never did anything in soul-winning before quite like all this at once, you know.”

“I shall be much in prayer for you, Gravel,” said WhiteHouse.

“And, WhiteHouse…,” said Gravel.

“Yes, Lisa?” asked Flanders’s unicorn pet.

She kissed her on her head and said, “I thank you, girl.”

“Why, thank you, Mistress,” said WhiteHouse, calling her “mistress,” for her first time.

And WhiteHouse walked away to start praying for Lisa Nickels and her labors for Christ to come upon her later this day.

After this, along came to her her unicorn CasaBlanca.  “Mistress!” sang out CasaBlanca.

“My girl!” called out the cheerleader in a maternal affection.

“God is with you this day,” declared her unicorn.

“This day and every day.  But especially today,” sang out Gravel.

“They are all coming,” said CasaBlanca.

“Not one will not be here,” said Lisa Nickels.

“I am so excited for you, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.  “I am even excited for myself to know how happy you will be for the rest of your life.”

“I won’t have to cry in my prayers for them anymore,” said Gravel.

“Could your humble unicorn be of any help to you in the middle of all of this that will be

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happening with you, O my mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.

“O girl.  I love you dearly.  And you love me dearly.  But I have to go this alone with God when it all is taking place,” said Gravel.

“I understand, Mistress,” said Gravel’s best friend.  “There are times when only God must be the One Who is there for help.”

“But I do ask you to help out in the one way that will be my greatest help, O CasaBlanca,” said the cheerleader.

“Just name it, and I will do it, Mistress,” promised CasaBlanca.

“I ask for your continued prayers today,” said Gravel.

“I shall pray for you all the rest of this day,” promised her good and faithful she-unicorn.

“Thank you, CasaBlanca,” said Gravel, a tear rolling down her cheek in joy.

“Mistress, you’re crying,” said CasaBlanca.

“I’m happy,” confessed Lisa.

CasaBlanca kissed her mistress’s tear off of her cheek with her unicorn tongue.  “God bless you, Lisa,” said her unicorn, calling her by her personal name for her first time.

“God bless you, my loved one,” said Gravel.

And CasaBlanca galloped off to go start praying for her mistress and for her words that she had to say to her unsaved family coming today for salvation.

Then her husband came up to her, his handsome countenance shining with passion that surpassed compassion.  “My true love,” he called out to her.

“My true love,” she called back to him.

They kissed long and hugged hard.

And he said, “We have prevailed in the Lord as griffin-slayers, Lisa.  This evening you shall prevail in the Lord as a soul-winner.”

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“I can feel it inside, Husband,” she said.  “I can feel it in my heart.  I can feel it in my soul.  I can feel it in my spirit.”

“I can feel it inside, as well, Wife,” he said in truth.

“What I feel, you feel.  What I like, you like.  What I hate, you hate,” she claimed the chemistry that they shared together as Christian-husband-and-Christian-wife.

“They’re all getting saved,” he said to her in sureness.

“I was saying the same thing to Jesus,” she said.  A moment passed.  Then she said, “A woman could almost get sick with all of this going on.”

“You had your whole life with your whole family going to Hell,” he told her her feelings.  “And now all of a sudden that can all change.  And soon you can have the whole rest of your life with your whole family going to Heaven,”

“Yeah.  Yeah,” she said.  “And if something goes wrong today… if the Devil were to try something in this time between before they get saved and after they get saved…if they suddenly choose not to get saved.”

“Jesus is faithful,” said Flanders.

“If I were to take my eyes off of Jesus when they are here, and I mess up, and they decide not to pray the sinners’ prayer with me,” she said.

He then put his hands gently upon her shoulders and his compassion shone forth brighter than his passion.  And he said to her with the authority of a husband over the wife, “Fair Lisa, I ask in the name of Jesus that you never mind Satan and ever mind Christ.”

“Good husband,” she said to him. “this counsel is the best counsel that I have heard this day,”

“God has Satan held back on a leash, O Lisa,” said Flanders about the utmost sovereignty of their Lord Jesus Christ.

“The Devil is not going to win this battle.  Is he, Flanders?” she asked, knowing the answer.

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“Fair Gravel, the Devil has already lost this battle,” he said to her.

“I shall not forget your advice this day, my husband,” promised the cheerleader.

“Can I help you in any way that you may request this evening?” he asked her.

“You have given your wife the help that she needs with your words of exhortation, my husband,” she said.

“I love you, and Jesus loves you, my fair wife,” he said to her.

“All I ask is that you pray for me,” she said.

“I shall pray for you all day this day,” he promised her.

“Our two unicorns promised to pray for me, too,” said Gravel.

“We three shall get together in a prayer circle out back and pray for you all day in a prayer meeting that will keep God busy all day hearing us,” promised Flanders.

“I appreciate that, O my husband,” said Gravel.  “And all will end well.  I promise.”

He reached out and stroked her black wispy tresses of hair along the side of her head.  Then he left to go praying for her.

“Thank you, dear Flanders,” she said back to him in a whisper that he could not hear.  And now the sun was quite bright yellow, and it was risen higher in the skies.

It was the first day of summer here upon these sand dunes.  And it was a comfortable and cool day, just right for wearing a full cheerleader uniform for a young woman like Gravel.  She felt a gentle and refreshing zephyr blowing upon her pleats, her legs, her ribbons, her hair.  She looked upon her pom poms.  She shook them.  She looked upon her King James Bible.  She considered.  She set down her pom poms.  She picked up her Bible.  And she held her Bible against her breasts in both arms.  This Good Book was to be the means with which she would witness of the Saviour to her family.  They were not far away right now.  They were right now just down the road a couple miles at Mom and Dad’s cabin by the creek.  At the right time they were going to all nine of them leave the cabin on foot

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together and walk here together and get here together.  In reverie the cheerleader strolled throughout these beatific sand dunes, holding her precious Bible against her breast in her right arm.  Seconds of daydream turned into minutes of daydream.  And minutes of daydream turned into hours of daydream.

And after a while the sun was directly above and at high noon.  Lisa decided that she was thirsty.  A bottle of unsweetened iced tea sat yet upon the sand underneath her little tree.  It was not cold anymore.  But that would do.  And she picked up the bottle, took off the cap, and drank down all of the rest of it in some gulps.  “I thank You, Lord, for this iced tea,” prayed this grateful cheerleader.  And she set the empty bottle upon the sand under this tree.

She then sat down under this tree for some spontaneous Bible reading.  She opened the Holy Bible to the book of Psalms.  And she began to read Psalm One.  And she went on to read more from the Psalter.  And then more.  And after a while she came to Psalm 150.  And she read this Psalm as well.  And she had thereby finished reading the book of Psalms, the longest book in the Bible.  And she looked up and saw the sun halfway down the sky and lowering.  It looked to be about mid-afternoon now.

Then the cheerleader Gravel fell upon spontaneous prayer, where she sat under the tree.  She began to pray all about what Heaven would be like for her with Jesus and with all of her family.  She thought about the things that they could do Up There, the things that they could say Up There, the things that that they could see Up There, the things that they could hear Up There, the things that they could feel Up There.  Jesus was There.  She looked up.  The sun was nearing the edge of the sky.  It looked to be a little after afternoon and a little before evening.  She then took her Bible, got up, and walked to her place in the sand where she would be for the salvation of her family.  And she sat down.  She needed now only to wait for them to come.

A short while passed.  The western sun now had a haze to it.  The sun was a dull and inspiring hazy yellow off across the dusty gravel road.  It was a wonderful and marvelous day star.  And

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the cheerleader reveled in God’s creation of light.  And this haze seemed even to enhance this light between afternoon and evening.  She looked out upon the road.

She saw a group of people walking down this gravel road from her right.  They were coming.  They were on time.  They were all there.  She counted to make sure—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.  Yes, all of her family were coming.  She stood up.  She said nothing.  She felt tingling butterflies in her stomach.  Her head felt giddy.  Her heart rejoiced with a brave new world.

Then her family came to the edge of her front yard.  Then they came to the edge of the sand dunes.  Then they came in upon the sand dunes.  And they were now alone with Gravel.  There stood Mom and Dad and Big Sister and Big Sister’s husband and Big Brother and Big Brother’s girlfriend and Little Brother and Little Brother’s girlfriend and Niece.  There stood Mom and Dad and Fay and Ron and Marty and Kris and Matt and Sandy and Bonnie.  All were silent.  All were ready.  All was love among family.

And Gravel asked a gilded question, “Would you like to get saved tonight?”

And her family replied with a gilded answer, “We would like to get saved tonight.”

And she bade her loved ones, “Come.  Sit with me.”

And her family of nine sat down with her in her sand dunes.  She sat down at her special place for this miracle.  And they sat down in their special places for this miracle.  And they made a semicircle in the sand in their line of people.  Behold the divine intervention of this semicircle of family.  This arc in the sand dunes was in order of importance of souls in Gravel’s heart.  The group all sat from most important to least important of family member’s souls in Gravel’s prayer life from end to end.  At this top was Mom and Dad, and at its bottom were extended family.  God did this.

Gravel sat at the top of this semicircle in the sand.  Mom sat to Gravel’s right.  Dad sat at Gravel’s left.  To her left beyond Dad sat Little Brother, then Big Brother, then Niece, then Big Sister, then Little Brother’s girlfriend, then Big Sister’s husband, then Big Brother’s girlfriend.   And the lone

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tree was to Mom’s right.  The most important soul here to Gravel was like unto Gravel’s own soul.  The least important soul here was more precious to her than any other soul who was not family.

The Holy Bible open upon her black and yellow pleats upon her lap, the cheerleader preached the plan of so great salvation to her family.  She preached the doctrine of the Saviour of the world to her family.  She preached the saving Gospel to her family.   And they all continually and sincerely and humbly nodded their heads and said, “Yes.” to all that she was teaching them.  They all understood what she was reading to them from the Bible.  They all understood what she was telling them about Jesus Christ.  They all understood what they needed to do to get saved from their sins.  And they were all ready now to pray and become born-again believers.

The sun was turning orange now.  It was near the edge of the horizon.  The haze was gone now. The orange sunset cast a surrealistic color upon this world of the sand dunes.  And the time was now here.

“Shall we pray?” asked the cheerleader.

“Let us pray,” said the nine.

“Repeat after me,” said Gravel.

“We shall repeat after you,” said her loved ones.

She brought her knees up where she sat, wrapped her arms around her legs, bowed her head, and closed her eyes, and prayed out loud for them.  And Lisa “Gravel” Nickels led her family thus through the sinners’ prayer:

“Dear Lord God, Father in Heaven Above:  Thou art most righteous, most holy, most right, most high.  Yet I am most unrighteous, most unholy, most wrong, most base. I do sin and come short of Thy perfect mark.  I commit transgression, thereby willingly and deliberately breaking Thy commandments.  I commit iniquity and thus disobey Thee in my heart.  For all of this I must go down to Hell and burn

in the lake of fire of the second death.  And in the fires I must pay forever for all of my dirty rotten sins.

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But there is yet hope.  Jesus saves.  Two thousand years ago, God left Heaven and came to Earth.  This God is Jesus Christ the Lord and Saviour.  He alone lived the perfect life and never sinned even one time.  He had come to die for me.  He went to the cross of Calvary for me.  He let wicked men pound nails through His hands and His feet upon the old rugged cross for me.  And He shed His perfect blood for me.  Christ’s shed blood paid for my sins, so that I do not have to go to Hell.  He died in my place.  And yet He did not stay dead.  Death could not keep the Son of God and God the Son.  Christ arose.

Christ the Lord is risen today.  He was thus resurrected on the third day.  Thus the true miracle of the true Easter.  Thou promisest Heaven to all who ask for it.  This is salvation.  This is eternal life.  This is everlasting life.  This is Thy free gift to fallen mankind.  Thus do I ask for it now.  Forgive Thou me of all of my sins.  Cleanse Thou me of all of my sins.  Help Thou me to repent of all of my sins.  And save Thou me from all of my sins.  And give Thou me a future of forever after with Thee in Heaven with peace and joy and love.  Fairest Lord Jesus, if Thou wouldest, become Thou me mine own personal Saviour.  I thank Thee and praise Thee for saving mine own soul.  In Thy name I pray.  Amen.”               The prayer for salvation was done.  Gravel opened her eyes and looked up.  There they were—her nine loved ones of family now quite born again Christians like unto herself.  She unbent her legs where she sat and spread them out upon the sand before her, and she put her arms behind herself and rested her hands upon the sand and sat up thereby.

Not sure what to say right now in all of her whirlwind of feelings, the cheerleader found herself saying, “I’m glad we griffin-slayers killed those griffins.”

And they said, “So are we, O Lisa.”

“It is good and great to be born-again believers.  Is it not?” she asked for certainty of their profession of salvation.

And they all said, “You were right about Christ.  And we were wrong about Christ.”

Yes.  They were truly saved.  Yes.

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Then, her family began to laud the Lord Jesus with all manner of glory to God, some saying, “Hallelujah!” some saying, “Alleluia!”  some saying, “Praise the Lord!”  some saying, “Hosanna!” some saying, “Amen!” and many other expressions that gave their new Heavenly Father all due praise.

This all came upon Gravel like a refreshing and overwhelming great wave coming ashore and washing over upon her.  She had desperate need now to be alone with God and to let it all out in privacy in a culmination of all manner of women’s feelings.  She needed privacy now right away real fast.  And God saw this from Above, and He answered her needs.

God the Father then called down upon her family here in the sand dunes, “This is My beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.  Hear ye her now.”

In awe of God, the nine turned and looked at her in expectation.

She said to them, “I think that I need to be alone with Jesus now.  I am going to have a good cry.”

And her loved ones understood, and they accommodated her her request.  And the nine stood up: they all hugged her one by one; and they left and walked back to the cabin.  And she was alone with God in the sand dunes.  Only this time, this was the moment after, and no longer the moment before.

The sun was red now, and it was beginning to dip below the horizon.  And the cheerleader sat down, and she rejoiced with joy abounding and overflowing, and she had a good cry in the Lord.  And then her weeping ended.

She looked upon the Bible in her hands.  She looked upon the pom poms upon the sand to both sides of her.   She considered.  And she put her Bible down.  And she picked up her pom poms.  She shook the pom poms and heard the familiar swishing that all cheerleaders with pom poms knew about.  Now was the time for happy joy and rejoicing.  Now was the time for singing hymns to God.  Now was the time for reveling in the Holy Spirit.  Now was the time for laughing and gaiety and celebration.  Now was the time for the cheerleader to cheer the God of so very great salvation.  It was twilight now

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of the happiest day of her life.  The full moon shone down upon her.  And the constellations were bright in the night sky above here far away from any big city’s lights.  And the cool summer zephyr still blew upon her from the Good Lord.  And she cheered her cheer for the Saviour of her family.  It was the Word of God found in Psalm 150, the close to the Psalter.  And as she cheered, she shook her pom poms.  And as she cheered, Heaven cheered with her.  And as she cheered, God listened and watched from Heaven:

“Praise ye the Lord.  Praise God in His sanctuary:

praise Him in the firmament of His power.

[Heaven’s hosts of angels began to say, “Praise Him!  Praise Him!”]

Praise Him for His mighty acts:

praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

[Heaven’s hosts of saints began to say, “Praise Him!  Praise Him!”]

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet:

praise Him with the psaltery and harp.

[Heaven’s trumpets and psalteries and harps began to play.]

Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;

praise Him with stringed instruments and organs

[Heaven’s timbrels and stringed instruments and organs began to play.]

Praise Him upon the loud cymbals;

praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals.

[Heaven’s cymbals began to play.]

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.

Praise ye the Lord.

[And all of creation in Heaven and in Earth—

in the skies and on the lands and in the waters–

praised God.]”

 

Her cheer leading for God finished now, she looked upon her pom poms.  And she let them fall to the sand.  And she looked at her bare hands.  She had seen in her high school days a certain dance that real pom and dance girls performed lots of times.  This one element of dance was so provocative, she heard, that it drove high school boys to a heat of frenzy.  This sexy dance trick involved simply the hands alone of a girl.  What was it?  It was when a dance team girl bent her hands backwards at the wrists at a ninety degree angle.  Now that was most evocatively sexy!  Should she dare just try it, alone with God right now and no one else watching?  The cheerleader tried it now with both of her bare

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hands.  She looked first at one, then at the other.  Whoa!  How daring!  What it looked like to see!  This cheerleader had never done a cheer trick like this as pom pom girls often did in their pom and dance routines in front of the whole school.  Something like this could tempt a guy to do something naughty with her were he to see here holding her hands so femininely as this.  And further, what if she dared to dance a cheerleader dance and to bump her hands thus against her hips many times over?  Doing thus would make her an Aphrodite—the Greek goddess of love.  It would turn her into a Venus—the Roman goddess of love.  And what if, as she were performing this seductive dance, she were to sing her current favorite hymn from the hymnbook, which she memorized?  This hymn was called, “Be Thou My Vision.”  What more personal way could a cheerleader thank God for having saved her family than doing this dance and singing her song to the Saviour of the world?  Gravel remembered in the Bible how King David had danced his dance before all the people when the ark of the covenant was brought back home.  A woman saw him dancing about in his unbridled love for God.  And she judged him as an indecent dancer.  But he said to her, “And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight:  and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.”  What he basically said was that he was dancing for God.  And God struck the woman barren for the rest of her life.  Gravel would let it go; she would give in to her emotions; she would dance for God.  Who cared if anyone saw her now?  All Lisa knew was that God had just gotten done saving her whole family.  She would thank him in her most intimate way.

And the cheerleader bent her hands back at their wrists; she bumped her left wrist against her left hip; she bumped her right wrist against her right hip.  And she began to sing a hymn to God, all the while bumping her wrists against her cheerleader’s hips both at once and shaking her hips as she did so:

“1.  Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart–

Nought be all else to me, save that Thou art;

Thou my best thought, by day or by night–

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

 

 

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2. Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word–

I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord,

Thou my great Father, I Thy true son–

Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

 

3. Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise–

Thou mine inheritance, now and always;

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart–

High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

 

4. High King of heaven, my victory won,

May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’n’s Sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.”

 

In this way did the cheerleader Gravel culminate her worship of this night in the sand dunes.

There was one last thing she had to do to climax this whole day.  She was to officially declare these sand dunes what they were now.  There underneath God’s heavenly lights of the night, Lisa Nickels took up a writing stick, and she walked up to where she had been sitting in that semicircle of her family, and she wrote in the sand:

“XANADU

(Where Dream of Dreams came true)”

 

Suddenly she felt strange in her head.  She got hot all over.  She got cold all over.  She felt faint all over.  And she did not know what was going on.  She was sick.  And she could not stand up.  Then she passed out where she stood.  And she fell to the sand before where this message lay.  And she lay there in sickness, not conscious.

Flanders was there for her.  He was the first of the family of the sand dunes to come back to ask her how the evening went.  And he saw her faint away there in the moonlight.  He quickly ran up to her and knelt down beside her.  He roused her with a touch on her shoulder.  She opened her eyes.  “My wife,” he said, “are you all right?”

“They got saved, Hubby,” she said, still sick.

Then CasaBlanca came to find out how the evening went for her with her family.  But when she

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saw her mistress lying there and Flanders kneeling beside her, she asked her in great cares, “Mistress, what happened?”

And Lisa struggled and said, “They are now born again, CasaBlanca.”

Then WhiteHouse came up to her to ask if all went well in today’s big soul-winning day.  But she saw Gravel lying upon the ground with CasaBlanca and Flanders with her.  And she asked Gravel, “Are you okay?”

And the sick cheerleader said in a hoarse voice, “They are now all Christians.”

“”My love, how do you feel?” asked Flanders directly about her illness.

“I am very hot.  I am very cold.  I feel like passing out,” she said.

“I’ve got to get you to bed,” said Flanders in fears for his wife.

“Shall we call the doctor, Master?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Shall we call an ambulance, Flanders?” asked CasaBlanca.

Flanders answered neither question.  Instead he silently and gently picked up his wife and brought her to their bedroom and set her upon her bed carefully.  The three stood over the bed and silently prayed for her to get better.  Then the two unicorns turned to Flanders.

And Flanders Nickels declared, “Gravel has been struck sick by the Devil.”

“Will she live?” asked CasaBlanca.

“Will she recover?” asked WhiteHouse.

“She will live.  She will recover,” said Flanders.

And Lisa Nickels asked, “Soon, Husband?”

And Flanders Nickels said, “Soon. I hope.  Soon.”

Then Gravel fell asleep on her bed.

 

 

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CHAPTER XXII

The next day, Gravel woke up, and she saw her faithful and true husband sitting upon a chair next to her bed.  She was all right.  What the Devil had done last night, the Lord had since taken away.    “You are okay,” he said half in statement and half in query.

“I am well now,” she said.  “Thank you for having stayed up all night for me.”

“God is good,” he said.

“And so are you, Husband,” said Gravel.

Just then CasaBlanca came in from outside. “You have not spent the night in the stable, girl?” asked Lisa in great praise.

“I was waiting just outside your bedroom, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca,

“Right now I never felt better,” said the cheerleader.  Then in came WhiteHouse.  Gravel asked, “You didn’t get any sleep either, WhiteHouse?”

“I lay awake all night in my stable,” said WhiteHouse.

“I am all healed up now and well,” said Gravel.

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Then Flanders said, “Today would be a good day to play one of our yard games that we like to play.”

“Let’s play ring toss,” said the cheerleader, leaping up off of her bed.

“Ring toss!” said CasaBlanca.

“Yes!” said WhiteHouse.

“Our unicorns’ favorite lawn game,” said Flanders.

“Let’s play in our sand dunes,” said Gravel.

“I’ll go get the rings,” said Flanders.

“Let’s go and get everything,” said Gravel.

And they got everything they needed for ring toss—the twenty rings, the roll of cloth measuring tape, and the two wooden rods, and the elaborate wooden scoreboard and all of its wooden pieces.  The rings were made of thin laminated pine wood reinforced with a thin layer of aluminum around the outer edge and the inner edge.  They were twelve inches in diameter in their outer circle.  They were one inch wide in their circle.  And they were ten inches in diameter in their inner circle.  Once again mistress and pet formed one team, and master and pet formed the other team.  The following were the rules for ring toss:  The keeper was to toss a ring toward his or her partner, and the partner—the pet unicorn—was to catch this ring upon her unicorn horn.  Each catch was worth one point.  There were ten rounds to each game of ring toss, each successive round involving a successively greater distance between the tosser and the catcher.  Five feet separated the teammates in the first round.  Ten feet separated the teammates in the second round.   Fifteen feet thus was the distance in the third round.  And so on to the tenth round, where fifty feet lay between keeper and unicorn.  Each team got one toss per round.  And before each round, a designated player measured the distance with the cloth measuring line.  And after the measuring was done in each round, another designated player set down two rods—one rod in front of the tosser of the ring; and one rod in front of the catcher of the ring.  These rods served as boundaries

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behind which the players could not cross over without penalty.  Were a tosser or a catcher to cross over this rod, one point was taken away from that team.  This rod was five feet long.  A wooden board for scoring was set up off to the side.  It was a board upon which were two columns of wooden pegs.  One column had ten pegs for ten rounds for one team, and one column had ten pegs for ten rounds for the other team.  Each peg recorded each team’s score for that round alone with marker rings placed upon these pegs during the game in progress.   After each round, a designated player put upon these pegs either black score rings or red promissory rings.  A black score ring represented a good ring toss catch, thus worth one point.  This was a “merit point.”  A red promissory ring represented a penalty of having crossed over the line, thus worth negative one point.  This was a “demerit point.” These were the marker rings.  After ten rounds, a designated player then looked upon the board, evaluated the sum, and declared the winner of ring toss for the day.

Reader, join with the storyteller as he narrates today’s ring toss:  It was the top of round one.  Flanders was about to toss his ring five feet to WhiteHouse.  And WhiteHouse chanted in encouragement to her master, “Attabatta, attabatta, attabatta.”

And CasaBlanca broke in with friendly trash talk, “This is not Little League Baseball, unicorn.”

And Flanders spoke and said, “This is bigger than baseball, unicorn girl.”

“This is bigger than life and death,” said WhiteHouse.  And all four laughed.

And Flanders tossed his ring, and his unicorn easily caught it on her horn.

“That’s just plain slop,” teased the cheerleader in fun.

“Nay, Lisa,” said Flanders.  “That is neither plain nor slop.”

“They started out well, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca, “but they will end up badly.”

“Do a cheer for us, good wife,” bragged Flanders on him and his unicorn in this round one.

“Doing a cheer is not in the rules of ring toss,” Lisa said.

“Yeah, tricky Flanders,” said CasaBlanca.  “Do you want us to get a red ring on our peg?”

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“Oh, but we do,” said WhiteHouse.

“Don’t answer that,” said Flanders.

“I respectfully decline comment,” then said WhiteHouse.

“It doesn’t work that way anyway,” said Gravel.  “I cannot get a demerit point for cheering like that in this game.”

Now it was the bottom of the first round, and the woman and her unicorn got ready for their first ring toss of this morning’s game.  “My turn,” she said, ready to toss.

“Your turn, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Your turn, O fair wife,” said Flanders.

“Your turn, Gravel,” said WhiteHouse.

“We all know that, guys,” said the cheerleader with a laugh.  And, distracted by all of these utterances, Lisa Nickels accidentally threw a wild toss that went way over her unicorn’s head.  But CasaBlanca reacted quickly, and she leaped straight up, pointing her horn straight up, and she got her horn tip within the frame of the ring, and she brought her fore hooves back down to the sand, and the ring stayed successively upon her horn.

“Voilà, Mistress,” bragged CasaBlanca.

“See that, Mister?” bragged Gravel on her unicorn right at Flanders.  “Voici!”

“That catch had to be an act of God, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“It seems like God is on their side this morning,” said Flanders to his she-unicorn.

Round one was done, and the score was one to one.  Round two was next for the four players.

And they all got ready for a ring toss now of ten feet.  And catcher awaited tosser.

“Don’t cross the line, Flanders,” said Gravel in talk.

“I didn’t cross the line,” said Flanders.

“She never said you did,” said CasaBlanca.

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“She implied it,” said WhiteHouse, looking at the two instigators.

And Flanders tossed the ring toward his she-unicorn.  But she was still looking at their opponents.  And her head was turned away from her keeper.  And the ring bounced off of her horn and fell to the earth at her fore hooves.

“A ha!” said Gravel.  “You lost it, unicorn.”

“We may have lost the ring, but we have not lost the game,” said Flanders.

“Not yet,” quipped CasaBlanca.

“Your turn now, girls,” said Flanders.  “We’ll see how you do when you get talked to like this.”

“Women talk too much, Master,” said WhiteHouse.  “All women are alike.”

“You’re a woman, WhiteHouse,” said Gravel.

“I’m a unicorn,” said WhiteHouse.

“A woman unicorn,” said CasaBlanca.  “Like myself.”

“My turn, guys,” said Gravel.

“We all know,” said Flanders.

And Gravel tossed her ring of this round’s ten feet.  But it was another bad throw.  This one was going straight to the unicorn’s lower fore hooves.  She tried valiantly to snatch it up just before it could hit the ground.  She passed her unicorn horn from left to right.  But it landed upon the sand just below where she swung her horn.  And it lay there clearly missed.

“How does it feel to miss the catch, CasaBlanca?” asked WhiteHouse in merriment.

CasaBlanca raised her unicorn head and said, “I couldn’t help it.  My mistress throws like a girl.”

“I throw like a woman,” said Gravel, defending her grown-up nature.

Round two was done.  And the score was still one to one.

“We’re next, WhiteHouse,” said Flanders.

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“Show us how a guy throws, Master,” his she-unicorn bragged on him.

And Flanders said, “And, by all means, pay attention like a guy, girl.”

And Flanders tossed his ring fifteen feet toward WhiteHouse.  His she-unicorn leaped forward and did catch the ring deftly upon her unicorn horn.  And she said, “Behold the unicorn!”

“’Behold the penalty,’ is what you should say, my unicorn friend,” said CasaBlanca.

“Penalty?  What penalty?” asked WhiteHouse.

“Ouch, a red promissory demerit,” said Flanders in surprise.

WhiteHouse looked down upon the ground where she had made her catch.  Lo, the rod lay between her fore hooves and her hind hooves where she was standing.  She had crossed the line.

“You really should have thought twice before jumping ahead like that, WhiteHouse,” teased Gravel.  “You were behind the line before you jumped, and you were ahead of the line after you jumped.”

“Take away a point!” chanted CasaBlanca.

“Give them a negative point,” said the cheerleader.

“I messed up that time,” said WhiteHouse.

“We’re all human,” said Gravel.

“Bite your tongue, Mistress,” said the proud unicorn CasaBlanca.

In humbleness, WhiteHouse said about herself and her kind, “We’re all unicorns.”

Then it was Lisa and her unicorn’s turn.  And she spoke and said, “Why are CasaBlanca and I last this time in the rounds?”

“Yeah, Flanders,” said her she-unicorn.  “My mistress and I ought to be first this time in all the rounds.”

“You both were first last time when we played ring toss here,” said Flanders.  “Now it is mine and WhiteHouse’s turn to be first in ring toss.”

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“I think that he is right, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.  “Do you remember?”

“I do now.  You’re right, girl.  And you’re right, Flanders,” said Gravel.  “I shall be content throwing second here in the sand dunes.”

“And I, too,” said CasaBlanca about catching second in today’s ring toss.

And Gravel paused to brag, saying, “I have a saying.  Al Davis used to say this to his football team the Oakland Raiders when they were once a dynasty in the N.F.L”

“What is it, Mistress?” asked her unicorn pet.

“’Just win, Baby!’” disclosed the cheerleader.

“Just win!” piped in CasaBlanca.  “Let us, good Mistress.”

And the cheerleader tossed the ring fifteen feet. And this time the toss was faithful and true.  And CasaBlanca lifted her horn from down to up.  And she caught up this ring adroitly upon her horn.  And she held it up in victory before the three of them.

“What do you make of that, Flanders?” asked Gravel.

“Ow, Master,” groaned WhiteHouse.

“Ouch, girl,” said Flanders.

“We two now have two points,” said Gravel.  “And you two still have only one point.”

“Their penalty took away their point for catching the ring,” said CasaBlanca.

“Do I not throw the ring just like Joe Montana and Steve Young throw footballs?” bragged the cheerleader.

“And do I not catch the ring just like Jerry Rice and John Taylor catch footballs?” bragged the cheerleader’s unicorn on herself.

Round three was done.   Now round four was next.  Flanders said to his partner, “We’d be tied if you had not gone over the line.”

“Were I to have missed the catch, Master, we would be behind by two points instead of by only

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one point,” confessed WhiteHouse.

“There’s a lot of game left today, girl,” said her master.

“And, really, Master, how can a guy lose at ring toss to a woman cheerleader?” boasted the man’s unicorn secretly to him.

“She lost big to me last time here,  Remember how we almost shut them out?”  asked Flanders quietly so their opponents could not hear him.

“They did not connect with the ring tosses until the very end of the game,” said WhiteHouse.

“Never before did they lose to us so bad as they did that time, girl,” said Flanders.

“We’ll make sure that they lose to us today almost as bad as they did last time,” said WhiteHouse.

“They lost to us by a score of one to ten,” said Flanders.

“It is too late for us to score ten points this time, Master.  But we can still score seven more points before this game is done,” said WhiteHouse.  “I tell you, winning eight to two sounds real good to this unicorn.”

“Winning eight to zero sounds even better,” said Flanders.

“Yes!  All that we need is a little luck,” said WhiteHouse.

“Or a little prayer,” said Flanders.

“God loves to answer prayer,” said WhiteHouse.

“What are you two whispering over there?” asked Gravel.  “I don’t trust whisperers.”

“We two were having a little fellowship,” said Flanders.

“It looks to me more like you’re talking about some mischief,” said the cheerleader.

“One can be like another when ring toss is involved, woman,” teased Flanders.

“If you were to play like you talk, you would not be losing this game like you are,” said Lisa.

“It isn’t over until the fat lady sings,” said Flanders.

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“I’m not fat, and I’m not singing,” said Gravel in truth and with a laugh.

“My mistress, don’t talk to them,” said CasaBlanca.  “I’m eager for another toss to catch.”

“”It’s our turn,” said WhiteHouse.

And Flanders got ready to throw the ring.

“I don’t think that you two will get this one, Husband,” said Lisa Nickels.  “Do you know how far this one is?”

“Twenty feet,” said Flanders.

“Nay,” said Gravel.  “One and one-seventh rods.”

“One and one-seventh rods?” he asked.

“What’s a rod?” asked WhiteHouse.

And, with wiles, Lisa showed off and said, “A rod is sixteen and one-half feet long.  Or, as you could say, ‘five and one-half yards.’”

“You still mean ‘twenty feet,’” said Flanders.

“Why did you say that, Gravel?” asked WhiteHouse.

And CasaBlanca answered for her mistress, “She just wanted it to sound farther that way.”

“You two are asking for it,” said Flanders.  “Shall we go now and begin to pull out ahead of them, WhiteHouse?”

“Now would be better than later, O Master,” agreed WhiteHouse.

And Flanders said, “No more fooling around.  Now I mean business in this ring toss.”

And Flanders tossed his ring.  And it was a perfect throw right toward the forehead of his unicorn.  All she had to do was to stand there and let the ring fall down upon her horn with no effort on her part.  “Bravo, Master!  Bravo!”  said WhiteHouse.  “That was the best toss of the day.”

“There are more of those where that one had come from, girl,” promised Flanders.

“Well, husband, you know how the saying goes,” said Lisa.  And she said the saying, “Anything

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that you can do, I can do better.”

And Lisa went ahead to toss the ring toward CasaBlanca twenty feet away.  And the ring hit the tip of her unicorn’s horn and fell down to the ground.  “Horses!” said the unicorn the equine species in vain.

“Master, look where Gravel is standing!” broke in WhiteHouse.

Flanders looked and saw Lisa standing upon the wrong side of the rod.  Gravel looked down.

“Uh oh.  Didn’t mean to do that,” said Gravel.

“Red demerit for you on the scoreboard, woman,” said Flanders.

“And your unicorn went and dropped the ring in play, too,” said WhiteHouse.  “I saw it.  My master saw it.  Your unicorn saw it.  You saw it.  Everybody saw it.”

“A promissory token for stepping over the line.  Well.  Well,” gloated Flanders.  “And zero points for dropping the ring.  My.  My,”

And round four was done.  And the score now was Flanders and his unicorn: two points; and Gravel and her unicorn:  one point.

And they began round five of this game’s ten rounds.  And Flanders said, “Gravel, do you know how I always beat you when we play horseshoes?”

“I do,” she said.

“And do you know how I always beat you at washers?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“And do you know how I always beat you at bean bag toss?” he asked.

“Uh huh,” she said.

“That’s because I am the king of yard games,” he said.

“You are the king of lawn games, Flanders?” she asked.

“Just look at this game of ring toss that we are playing and how I am beating you,” he said.

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“Well, ‘king of yard games,’” Lisa Nickels went on to say, “when was the last time that you beat me at badminton, at croquet, at miniature golf, at tennis, at volleyball, or at soccer?”

He had to say, “You usually win those games, Gravel.”

And CasaBlanca went on to say, “My mistress, ‘The Queen of lawn games.’”

“Those are dumb games,” said Flanders.

“I’d say that they got you there, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“And we are going to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat,” said the cheerleader about today’s ring toss game.  “Are you with me, CasaBlanca?”

“I am with you, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Let’s turn this game around right now,” said Lisa.

“Gravel, it is my and my master’s turn,” said WhiteHouse.

“Oh yeah,” said Gravel.  “We have to wait a turn, CasaBlanca.”

And WhiteHouse said, “O Master, did you hear what Gravel just said?  She said that she is going to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat.”

“Ha ha,” said Flanders.  “I would think that she and her unicorn are instead going to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.”

“Ha ha, Flanders,” said Lisa in sarcasm.

“He sure told us, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Toss me the ring, O master, and I promise to catch it,” said WhiteHouse.

This time the measure was twenty-five feet.

And Flanders tossed another beautiful floater that landed perfectly upon the raised horn of his unicorn where she stood, herself not having to budge from her spot.

“This game is getting easier and easier,” said WhiteHouse.

“For us, girl, but not for them,” said Flanders.

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“Now it’s your turn,” said WhiteHouse to her opponents.

“I cannot throw like Flanders can throw,” confessed Gravel.

“What about me, Mistress?” asked CasaBlanca.

And Gravel said, “I do not think that you can catch like WhiteHouse can catch, girl,”

“We are not quitters, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

“Look, Master, fighting in the ranks,” said WhiteHouse.

“They’re not fighting,” said Flanders.  “They are discussing.”  Man and unicorn pet laughed.

Gravel stepped up to throw.  “Twenty-five whole feet,” she called out.

“That measures up to three hundred whole inches, woman.” called forth Flanders.

“We’ve got nothing to lose, Mistress,” called out CasaBlanca.  “And they really having nothing to win.”

“Just the game, girl,” said Lisa Nickels.

“A game is just a game,” said CasaBlanca.

“Sure beats slaying griffins,” said Flanders.

“Praise God we lived after all of those griffin battles,” said Gravel.

“Rest from war is a great thing,” said WhiteHouse.

“And just think of the rewards that we will get in Heaven from our ministry to God as griffin slayers, Mistress,” said CasaBlanca.

Waxing confident, the cheerleader tossed the ring all twenty-five feet.  But the ring sailed wide right, and CasaBlanca had to chase after it, running after it to her left.  And she could not catch it.  It landed upon the sand.  And that meant once again no point for the cheerleader and her unicorn.

“Woulda coulda shoulda!” teased Flanders.

“Too bad.  So sad,” teased WhiteHouse.

‘Woe,” said Gravel.

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“Alas,” said CasaBlanca.

Round five was done.  And now Flanders’s team was ahead of Lisa’s team by a score of three to one.  And Flanders and his unicorn were gaining momentum.  And Gravel and her unicorn were losing momentum.

Round six came upon the two teams now here in the sand dunes.  And again Flanders threw the perfect toss of the ring, and again WhiteHouse caught the perfect catch of the ring.  And again a miscommunication took place between tosser and catcher on the cheerleader’s team and they missed.  And now the score was four to one in favor of Flanders and his unicorn.

Round seven came and went, and the same thing happened—Flanders’s team caught the ring toss, and Lisa’s team did not catch the ring toss.  And the score was now five to one in favor of Flanders.

Round eight came, and it was more of the same.  And when this round was done, Flanders and his unicorn were up on Gravel and her unicorn six to one.

And when round nine was done, Flanders’s team was ahead of Gravel’s team seven to one.

And now the tenth and final round remained.  Out loud enough to be heard, WhiteHouse asked, “Remember. Master, how I was thinking about us winning this game with a score of eight to two, if everything went our way for the rest of this ring toss?”

“And do you remember how I said that winning with a score of eight to zero would be better for us?” asked Flanders.

“Yes,” she said.  “That would be a shutout.”  And she said, “But that’s impossible now.”

“Well, I wish for the impossible,” said Flanders.  “For that to happen, we would have to catch the toss, and they would have to miss the toss, and they would have to step over the line.”

“I like your thinking, Master,” said WhiteHouse.

“God can do that for us,” said Flanders.

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“I don’t think that God would have anything to do about that,” said Lisa Nickels.  CasaBlanca said nothing.

And round ten came about.  Sure enough, Flanders and his unicorn gained another point.  And sure enough, Gravel and her unicorn missed another point.  But an unexpected turn of events came down upon Gravel and CasaBlanca in this tenth round of ring toss in these sand dunes.  By crazy ill luck, both the cheerleader and her unicorn had crossed their rods during the play.  And that was a double demerit.  And that earned them two red promissory tokens on their scoreboard.  They actually lost two points in this last round.  And the score ending up being:  Flanders and WhiteHouse, eight points; and Lisa and CasaBlanca, negative one points.

“Master,” said WhiteHouse, “eight to negative one!”

“WhiteHouse,” said Flanders Nickels, “that’s even better than eight to zero.”

“Great game, guy and gal,” said Gravel and her unicorn.

“Great game, gals,” said Flanders and his unicorn.

And they left the sand dunes in a glad and happy heart after having had another glad and happy game of ring toss.

 

It was dark of night now.    The cheerleader Gravel was here alone in the sand dunes.  And the full moon and the bright constellations again shone down upon her.  Last night, she had stood here after just having won her family to their salvation.  And she had drawn a most consummate message here in the sand.  She stood before that message now.  It read:

“XANADU

(Where Dream of Dreams came true)”

 

She then picked up a writing stick and she wrote in the sand of her sand dunes an addendum to this

 

message underneath it:

 

 

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“Yours In Christ,

Your ‘Angel of Xanadu’”

 

Then she set down the stick, left the sand dunes, and came back inside for the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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