Flanders Nickels, a man with a dog, thinks himself happy with Chartres, his pet Saluki. But suddenly he comes to understand his own mortality. And, pondering death to come someday, he loses his happiness. Along comes a China doll of a girl, a pretty Oriental bride. Her name is Xiao Xiu Xiong, and she is a born-again Christian. She needs to give him hope in Christ. And he needs to become a believer like herself so that death will not be his end.
THE CHINA DOLL OF A GIRL
By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
“Tug-of-war, girl!”called out the man to his dog. They were having a game together over an old pair of blue jeans. The master was a dog lover called “Flanders Nickels.” The dog was a game-some
white Saluki called “Chartres.” And man and dog were roughhousing thus in this tug-of-war—the end of one blue jean leg in both of Flanders’s hands; and the end of the other blue jean leg in Chartres’s mouth. The master was leaning his body back in tug upon his two legs, and the pet was leaning her body back in tug upon her four legs.
“Do you give up, girl?” asked Flanders. In reply the Saluki asked him the same question silently in her brown canine eyes. And they pulled harder. And it happened. The blue jeans tore right in the middle. And man and dog fell down upon their haunches, each having one leg of the blue jeans in their grip. “Look what you went and did, Chartres,” said Flanders in tease.
And the Saluki gave him back a canine look that clearly said, “You did it this time, Master.” And she shook her white head with the half of the blue jeans in her teeth.
Flanders enjoyed seeing her long white ears flop around when she did this. And he said, “Oh,
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you’re too much, Chartres.” And she betrayed a canine grin with her teeth. “Stalemate, girl?” he asked. And she gave a look that conceded a tie in this game.
But just because the tug-of-war was done did not mean that their frolic in the yard was done.
Now would be a good time for good old-fashioned roughhousing. And the master began this next game impromptu by taking his half of the blue jeans and twirling it around above his head in his right hand.
This caused Chartres a moment of confusion that she betrayed in her countenance. Then Flanders pounced upon his Saluki while twirling his pants leg in the air, and he wrapped it around Chartres’s shoulders. And he thought to tie it up good and tight around her. But she was a dog of most uncanny wiles. And she backpedaled out of this snare, shoulders and head and all. And as she did this, she also grabbed this binding pants leg in her jaws in addition to the pants leg already in her jaws. And Flanders grabbed at the original pants leg that she already had in her teeth, and he pulled. And man and dog became most intricately all tied up in a bundle. Lo, in Flanders’s hands now was the blue jean leg that Chartres had won in the tug-of-war, and in Chartres’s mouth now was the blue jean leg that Flanders had won in that same tug-of-war. “Chartres, Chartres,” said the master in fun, “With a Saluki like you, a man just can’t win.” And she gave back a pretty bark in affection. And both gamesters were all tied up in blue jean halves. “As Oliver Hardy said to Stan Laurel, Chartres, ‘Another fine mess you got me into.’” said Flanders. And he laughed most merrily. She laughed silently on the inside. “For us to get out of this mess, we both have to let go of the blue jeans,” he said. “If you do that and I do that, then I can untie us. Both consented, and the master extricated them from this bond.
But just because this roughhousing was done, it did not mean that this spree outdoors was done. Now would be a good time to shower affection toward each other as master and dog could do best.
And Flanders slapped down upon the green grass with both palms in front of him, and the obedient Saluki sat down upon the ground in front of him. And he hugged her around her neck, and kissed her on her white head. And she kissed him on his nose and groaned in most great contentment. He said,
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“What would I do without you, girl?” She clearly understood his words. And she cocked her head to the side at him and gave him a brown-eyed look. Master and Saluki had forged a very great chemistry between each other in their many months of life together as man and dog. He loved her, and she loved him. It seemed as if he had her for forever. And it seemed like he would always have her for now on.
He went on to tell her how happy she made him in his life, and hopefully how happy he had made her in her life. He had always dreamed for a life with a good dog in the country. Bur he found out that a life with a good dog in the city was easier and just as good for him in his pursuit of happiness. They were sitting together now in the front yard here in the small town and looking out unto the walkers on the sidewalk and the travelers on the residential road and the good activity out there in the neighborhood in the local yards. Flanders was happy. Chartres was happy. Everybody was happy.
Then a pedestrian came down the sidewalk passing by with a little boombox in both hands. From this Flanders could hear a song being played. It sounded quite melodic. And Flanders liked this song. He listened. It talked about love, and it said that love was the answer. What a most uplifting song this was that he was hearing right now. Then he heard the song lyrics sing, “Who knows why, someday we all must die.” A finality struck his insides with a poignant truth. This line of lyric that he had just heard seized his happiness and tore it right out of his heart. These eight sung words grabbed his soul as with the fright of a specter. And doom came down upon his spirit. Flanders Nickels knew now that someday he must die. He was a twenty-two-year-old man right now with the rest of his life ahead of him. He had fifty more years to enjoy life. He was a young man who did not have to worry about dying for many, many years to come. But now he could see death coming upon him someday and ceasing all the rest of his happiness in this life with annihilation. Flanders Nickels would be six feet under someday and no longer be at all in any way for forever and ever. When death were to come upon him that would be the end of all that he was and of all that he did and of all that he liked. And what about beloved Chartres? She must die someday, too, probably before he would die. She was two
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years old now. Ten years from now—a sole decade from now—she would either be an old dog of twelve years of age, or she would be dead. Death was now certain to Flanders. And life was now suddenly hopeless to him. Flanders Nickels was now unhappy in his life with Chartres. He sang the sad song lyric to the Saluki now, “Who knows why, someday we all must die.” And she saw his sorrow, and she shared his sorrow, whining in understanding.
Just then Flanders heard the sound of swishing coming upon them here in the front yard. He looked up and saw a bride walking down the sidewalk alone. Her wedding dressed swished quite pleasantly to his ears as she walked. And the girl was a most attractive young woman. She stopped, looked at him, and smiled in kindness. She was an Asian girl, about his age, and about his size. Her wedding gown was all pure white with long sleeves and with a great train and with great abundance of silk. And she had most pleasant Oriental girl features: her hair was black, straight, shoulder-length and with bangs; her eyes were a dark brown; and her complexion had a kind of yellow-white to it. In addition she had fetching braces all over her pretty teeth. Whoa! A China doll of a girl!
And she spoke and said to him, “Kind sir, your Saluki is a handsome dog.”
“Good miss,” he said, forgetting his troubles for now, “it’s a she-dog.” And he smiled back at her in mirth.
“Oh, I’m bad,” she said, with a laugh. “Your Saluki is a pretty dog.”
“Thank you, miss,” he said. “Her name is ‘Chartres.’”
“May I pet Chartres?” asked the China doll of a girl.
“She might get your bridal dress a little dirty,” he said.
“I love all big dogs,” she said. And she held out her hand toward Chartres. Chartres looked at her master; he nodded; and she came up to the fair young bride and sat down and was careful not to brush against the young woman’s bridal dress. Chartres then proffered her right fore paw, and the China doll of a girl reached out her hand, and dog and bride shook hands. Such a wonder all these
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things that were happening were for Flanders. He had ever been fond of brides in their bridal attire. But pretty girls and pretty brides were rare for him to behold. And to see an Oriental girl adore his own Chartres as he adored Chartres smote his heart with a crush on the girl.
“What’s your name?” Flanders dared to ask the beautiful Asian bride.
And she said, “My name is ‘Xiao Xiu Xiong,’” said the China doll of a girl with a feminine curtsy.
In practice to get it right for himself, Flanders repeated most adeptly, “Xiao Xiu Xiong.”
“That’s right, sir,” she said. “What’s your name?”
“I am ‘Flanders Arckery Nickels,’” he introduced himself to her. And he bowed before the China doll of a girl. She paused to look at a pocket watch and then put it in her purse.
“I’m on my way to get married today, Flanders,” she said.
This disappointed him, but he did not gloom over this despite his loneliness. He asked, “Who’s the lucky groom, Miss Xiong?”
“I don’t know for sure yet,” she said.
“You are about to get married, and you do not know who the bridegroom is?” asked Flanders.
“I have to choose between two,” said the China doll of a girl. “I cannot have both.”
“When do you have to decide, Xiao?” asked Flanders.
“When we all three stand at the altar in the church,” said the Oriental bride.
“That could create a whole big problem for your wedding day, Xiao,” said Flanders.
“I don’t know if either of them know about actually becoming my husband,” she said.
“Do you know their names?” asked Flanders, skeptical now.
“One is named ‘Michael,’ and the other one is named ‘Gabriel,’” she told him.
“Your suitors are definitely angels to go along with you like this, Xiao Xiong,” said Flanders.
“Michael and Gabriel are both angels indeed, Flanders,” said the China doll of a girl.
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“They must be different from normal grooms, the way all of this wedding is taking place,” said
Flanders.
“Michael and Gabriel are both angels indeed, Flanders,” the bride said again.
“Oh. Angels…like in the Bible?” he asked.
“Yes, Flanders. Angels like in the Bible,” she said. “The Holy Bible mentions the names of only three angels. One is Michael. One is Gabriel. And the other is Lucifer. I don’t want to marry Lucifer, though. I wish to marry a good angel.”
“I did not know that angels were the marrying kind, O Xiao,” he said.
“A girl like myself can dream, though, Flanders,” said the China doll of a girl.
“I have doubts about all of this, Xiao,” he said. “I don’t think that this wedding thing is going to work out.”
“A woman like myself is a dreamer, Flanders,” said the Oriental woman. “Do not talk so to a dreamer as myself.”
“Would you stay and chat with me a while?” asked lonesome Flanders.
“I think that that would please God,” said the pretty bride. “I like to please my Saviour.”
“Are you a saved girl then?” asked Flanders.
“I am,” she said. “I’m born again.”
“I’m not. I’m not born again,” he said.
“Maybe I can help you,” she said.
“I didn’t know that I needed help,” he said, at first indignant. But then he remembered his doom of death that awaited him a long time from now. And he said, “I think that maybe I do need some help, Xiao.”
“How can I help?” she asked him.
“Today I found out that Chartres and I will have to die someday, and all of our fun times with
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each other will end forever and never happen again,” said Flanders Nickels.
“That’s bad news,” said Xiao Xiong.
“Could I hear some good news?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “We can first talk about good news. Tell me how you and your adorable Saluki first met, O Flanders.”
He said, “My beloved Chartres.” And he was glad for now.
“May I sit with you, Flanders?” asked the Asian bride.
“Will your wedding gown be all right if you sit in the grass as I am, Xiao?” he asked.
“God’s beautiful short green grass will not stain this bride’s dress,” she said. And she sat next to him in the grass. Chartres was sitting next to Flanders to the right, and Xiao was sitting next to Flanders to the left. Flanders saw and felt this much feminine silk that covered the China doll of a girl right up against him where all three sat. He paused to gaze upon its sensual whiteness of fabric.
And the Oriental bride caught him doing this, and she said in flirt, “Don’t make two angels jealous, Flanders Nickels.” He laughed in self-effacement. And she laughed in friendship.
And he said, “I was supposed to tell you about my first day with good and faithful Chartres, Miss Xiong,”
“Uh huh,” said the China doll of a girl, eager to hear the good true tale.
“It happened just last year, Xiao,” he began. “I was twenty-one years old. Chartres was one year old. I was a young man who just moved out of Mom and Dad’s house and starting living on my own. I never found myself a girlfriend in life. I was lonely. And I wanted a pet. I didn’t want any exotic pet to take care of. I did not want a cat. They strike me as aloof to their masters. I loved dogs.
But not little dogs, Xiao. I am like what you said about yourself just a moment ago—I love all big dogs, too. Well that one day, I found a set of railroad tracks that I had never discovered before.
I always was a regular walker. So I went and began walking down these railroad tracks in order to
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make up my mind about which breed of large dog that I could have as companion and to make me happy in my life. I was so caught up in my fervid thoughts about dogs, that I lost track of time, and I suddenly found myself a good five miles into my walk down the railroad tracks. It was not until then that I looked around at my surroundings here where I was walking. And I stopped to look around.
Do you know what I saw?”
“A real Saluki dog, Flanders?” asked the China doll of a girl.
“That part came later,” he said. “But what I saw was that here in the middle of nowhere, these same railroad tracks for some reason suddenly came to their end! Who ever heard of railroad tracks ending out in the sticks like that? And there’s more, Xiao. Right where the railroad tracks did end was a whole acre of ground of one big sand dune. And in all of this dune of sand were what one could call ‘sand mounds.’”
“As in ‘mounds of sand?’” asked the Asian girl.
“Yeah, everywhere and several,” he said. “They were each big enough to cover up a big treasure chest.”
“Is that what was in those sand mounds—treasure chests, Flanders?” asked the China doll of a girl.
“No,” he said. “That part I will get back to a little later.” He continued, “And I also saw all kinds of railroad track pieces lying all around loose upon the sand. I mostly saw rusty old spikes. But I also saw lots of rusty metal plates all around. And I saw some old railroad ties here and there, too, all by themselves. They were all wood, and they were heavy when I lifted them up and let them fall back down again. And I saw some long iron pieces of rails themselves a good ten feet long or longer.”
“But what about all those little mounds, Flanders?” asked Miss Xiao Xiong.
“That part comes next in my little tale,” he said. “As I stopped my study of these railroad track pieces, I then began to focus back on the mounds.”
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Chartres gave forth a pretty bark and gave her master a brown-eyed look and cocked her head to the side at him. “Yeah, girl,” he said to her. “First, beneath; second, above.”
“Flanders, do I see a sexy girl coming up out of the cake?” asked the China doll of a girl in most observant metaphor.
“That you do, Miss Xiong,” he told her.
“I think that I know now,” said Xiao.
“I tell you: all of a sudden a big dog came up and out of one of the mounds of sand, climbed out of the pile, and shook herself free from the sand upon her white coat and stood there looking at me.” said Flanders.
“Chartres, you’re magic,” said Xiao.
“I stopped to wonder if there might be other dogs soon to come out of the other sand mounds out here, but then this dog ran up to me and pounced her front paws upon my feet and scampered off to invite me for a spree in the sand. She was magical indeed, Xiao, and she made me to forget about checking the other piles of sand. And we shared frolic in the sand together,” he said. Then he said, “I checked lots of the other mounds later that day, but nothing was in them.”
“How did she get in there like that?” asked Miss Xiong. “Who did that to her? Was she all right in there?”
“I think that she did that for herself, and she waited for me to come along before coming out to surprise me,” said Flanders.
“What a tease, Flanders,” said the China doll of a girl.
“We frolicked together for a good hour there in the sand where the railroad tracks ended, and then it was time to go home,” said Flanders Nickels. I then asked her the big question, ‘Pretty white dog, do you have a master? Could I become your master? Would you like to come home with me and become my pet dog?’
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Just then a gruff voice of a mean man called forth and broke the blessed quietness that had been here in the sand dunes, yelling, ‘Chartres!’
And right after that a voice of a bad little boy called forth, ‘Naughty Saluki, running away like this again!’
I then learned the name and the breed of my wonderful new big white dog. When I looked up I saw a beast of a guy with saliva going down the side of his mouth, and I saw an unkempt boy very short and very fat with evil in his eyes.
‘Is this your dog, Sir?’ I asked.
‘No. She’s not mine,’ said the guy.
‘She’s mine, all mine,’ said the boy.
“She’s a bother,” said the man.
“And a pest, a real pest,” said the boy.
‘None of us know what to do with her,’ said the guy.
‘A boy and his dad could do better than what we did when we took her,’ said the boy.
‘One would think that stealing a dog from the dog pound would not end up in such disaster,’ said the man.
‘Is Chartres a bad dog?’ I asked.
‘She’s the worst,’ said the boy.
‘We got her, and she has run amok,’ said the guy.
‘What does she do that makes her a bad dog?’ I asked.
‘All that she wants to do is to play and run around and have a good time,’ said the man.
‘She’s a dog. What more can I say?’ said the boy.
‘I hate dogs,’ said the man.
‘And I hate dogs, too, just like Dad,’ said the boy.
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‘Could I have her?’ I asked.
‘Take her away for us,’ said the man.
‘And good riddance,’ said the boy.
‘Thank you both,’ I said. Then I asked, ‘Sir, did you bury this dog in the sand?’
‘I did not,’ he told me. ‘But the thought did come upon my mind.’
‘Was it you who buried this dog in the sand, young man?’ I asked the boy.
And the boy said, ‘I would rather bury her dead than bury her alive,’
And my beloved Chartres is here now one year later and all my own,” said Flanders.
“Are you happy?” asked the China doll of a girl.
“Yes,” he said. Then he said, “No.” He had suddenly remembered that death song of just a moment ago.
“Are you unhappy?” she asked.
“No,” he said hastily. Then he said a more honest, “Yes.”
“How come, Flanders?” asked the Oriental bride.
“Because someday I must die,” he said.
“Let me help, Flanders,” she said. “I have a true tale to tell you if you would like to hear me out.”
“I’m listening, Xiao,” he said.
“It is the tale of two whose deaths were imminent,” she began. “One of the two was a born-again Christian, and the other one of the two was not a born-again Christian. The saved woman was in the hospital, and she was told that she would pass away the next day. She was, nonetheless, happy and content and unafraid of death. And she told everyone who came into her room the good news about the day of her death, saying, ‘Tomorrow I get to go to Heaven.’ The next day she died and went to Heaven.
But, woe unto the lost man in his situation. He was living in a nursing home, having had to endure a
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a stroke or two from his life of much hard drink. He had always been a proud self-sufficient and capable man who ‘did not need God.’ But there in his room, when I saw him, he had a terrified and scared and frantic look upon his eyes and upon his face that I had never thought to see in him. He was soon going to die, and he was desperate and without hope. He again resisted the Gospel that I told him.
And not long later he died and went to Hell.”
Flanders said, “I am not at all like that woman of faith, and I am very unsaved. And I am a lot like that drunkard, even though I do not drink.”
“Would you like to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour as I did, Flanders?” asked the China doll of a girl.
“Could you tell me how you found Him as Saviour first, O Xiao?” asked Flanders.
“I can do that, Flanders,” said the pretty Asian woman. And the China doll of a girl gave the testimony of her salvation: “It was ten years ago for me. I was twelve then. My own big brother had found Christ some time before, and he kept telling me about how much I needed Christ. I did not agree.
I was wrong; he was right. I remember that one particular time when he boldly dared to say to me, ‘Little Sister, I prayed that you accept Jesus Christ as Saviour.’ The idea that I become one of them—one of those Christians—galled me. And the truth that Big Brother was praying to God for that to happen to me incensed me with great offense. And we had a big fight. Well, I had the big fight. My older brother was silent and humble and longsuffering with me. I yelled at him, but he did not yell at me. I felt like giving up on my big brother for all of his preaching. But he never gave up on his little sister despite her disfavor to God and the Word. Well, Flanders, my twelfth birthday came up, and Mom and Dad and all of my brothers and sisters gave me lots of birthday presents. Of course my big brother was there, and he gave me my worst birthday present of that day. It was a Holy Bible. I said out loud most discourteously, saying, ‘Boring!’ But he told me, ‘Exciting!’ It said ‘King James Version,’ on its spine. What was a girl like myself going to have to do now with the Good Book?
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I certainly did not wish to read it. I would rather have fun. And fun was not the Word of God for a lost person like myself.”
“I bet that you did pick it up and begin reading from it, Xiao,” said Flanders.
“I did at that, Flanders,” said the pretty Asian girl, “but not for Big Brother for his concerns for me, but rather to satisfy my curiosity about this Book of Books that was so famous throughout the world.”
“What did you read when you opened up that Bible?” asked Flanders.
“I remember having prayed first to the God of this King James Bible, asking Him to have me open this Holy Bible right to where He would have me to read,” said the China doll of a girl.
“Do you remember what it said and where it was, Xiao?” asked Flanders Nickels, becoming curious about this conversion called “becoming born again.”
“I do, Flanders, and I remember all of it,” said the China doll of a girl: “I opened up the good Bible, and this was what I read: ’And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’ Mark 9:43-48.”
“What fire and brimstone preaching for a girl to read at twelve years of age,” said Flanders Nickels.
“Such Words of God that every person of any age needs to take heed to,” said Xiao Xiong.
“You took heed to God’s Word. Didn’t you?” asked Flanders.
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“Such words indeed, Flanders,” said the Asian bride. “This girl before you now was duly convicted of her sins. My hands had done many bad things. My feet had done many bad things. My eyes had done many bad things. And here I was, going to Hell and having no idea how to keep myself from having to go down there.”
“What did you do then, Xiao?” asked Flanders.
“I ran crying to Big Brother,” said Miss Xiong. “And I got saved from my sins.”
“What did he do to save you?” asked Flanders.
“He did not save me. Jesus saved me,” said the China doll of a girl. “Jesus used my big brother to lead me to my salvation.”
“How did it take place? What happened that saved you? What did you have to do to get this salvation for yourself?” asked Flanders.
“I prayed the sinners’ prayer,” said the pretty Oriental bride.
“Was that it?” asked Flanders. “All you had to do was to pray, and now here you are, no longer going to Hell?”
“Uh huh,” said the China doll of a girl. “I prayed for and received God’s free gift of eternal life. That is how I got saved. That is how everybody needs to get saved.”
“I don’t understand,” said Flanders.
“That’s because you are still unsaved, Flanders,” said Xiao Xiong. “All lost people cannot comprehend the things of God that all saved people can.”
“I don’t have a chance,” said Flanders.
“God’s Holy Spirit can give you this wisdom,” she said. “If you pray as I prayed, then you can become a born-again Christian, too. And only born-again Christians get to go to Heaven. All who are not born-again Christians have to go to Hell.”
Flanders turned to look at Chartres. And he asked, “Xiao, is getting born again even better than
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falling in love?”
“It is the best thing that ever happened to me, Flanders,” proclaimed Miss Xiong.
“I want this same thing to become my own best thing that ever happened to me, too,” he declared to this attractive China doll of a girl.
“God sent me here to lead you to Him, I can see now, Flanders,” she said.
“I am ready for the Saviour of the world to save me, Xiao Xiu Xiong,” said Flanders Nickels.
Just then the frisky Saluki dog began to try to open the purse with her teeth on the zipper head.
“Clever Chartres!” sang forth the Asian girl in a coo.
“Silly girl, get out of there,” scolded Flanders his dog in play.
And the China doll of a girl picked up her purse and opened it and took out her pocket watch.
She looked upon it. She said, “My, my. It’s getting late. I need to go and get married now.”
“Right now in the middle of this?” asked Flanders, knowing of and desiring his born-again conversion in Christ.
“I’ll be back, I promise,” said the Oriental bride.
Flanders knew. She would never come back. She would have herself a husband. And he was a lost sheep in need of the Chief Shepherd Jesus Christ.
The China doll of a girl now stood up to go to the wedding altar. Flanders stood up and took her hand in his hand and said, “Please don’t go right now, Xiao. Could you be here with me a little bit longer and help my soul get right with God?”
But she said to him, “A bride ought not to keep her groom waiting, Flanders.”
Who was Flanders to hinder a beautiful Oriental girl like herself from marrying her cute guy?
He pondered. He let go of her hand. He looked at Chartres. He looked at Xiao. He looked Upward into the sky. He looked down at his feet. And he said, “I’ll miss you, Xiao.”
“God be with you, Flanders Nickels,” said the Asian bride. And she began to walk away down
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the sidewalk.
She had come. And she was now going. And he was still lost in his sins and going to Hell.
Chartres began to go after her to bring her back. Flanders commanded his Saluki, “Come back, girl.”
And she stopped and came back. Both waited long and looked long as the beautiful bride slowly disappeared on down the road. And after a while they could see her no more. Flanders had not found Jesus, and he was never going to Heaven now. Then he told his dog, “Run after her. Catch her. And bring her back for me.”
And Chartres obeyed her master and did run quickly on down the sidewalk to go and get the pretty bride in white. Flanders stood there, praying for God’s mercy that Chartres find Miss Xiong for him. The moments became whiles, and Flanders started to lose hopes for salvation. But Flanders would not sit down until Chartres came back with that China doll of a girl. He stood standing. And his legs became weary. Lo, Chartres was coming back now. And Flanders praised the God whom he knew not. Yet she was not running back as she had run off. In fact, she was walking, and most slowly at that. And her head was down in somberness. She must not be a bearer of good news, thought Flanders in rude awakening. And then she was here, in front of him. “Bad news, girl?” asked the master. And she said nothing. “You did not find her?” asked Flanders. She nodded her head sorrowfully. “And I am doomed,” he said about his life to come. She gave forth a whine. He then sat down in the grass and had a desperate prayer, saying, “Lord, bring back the China doll of a girl, I pray Thee.” After praying thus, the master reached out and held good Chartres in both arms around her neck and held her long and tight and said to her, “I love you, Chartres.” And she said the same to him with a loving whine.
They then stood up to go back into the apartment. Just then the Saluki gave a short quick little bark and looked down the sidewalk toward the direction from where the bride had gone away on them.
Flanders looked off in that direction. A woman in white was coming toward them from several blocks away. “A white dress as white as your coat, Chartres,” said Flanders. “Why do you make much ado
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and bark so, girl?” And he turned to go in for the day. But now the Saluki gave forth two short little barks unto her master. He rebuked her mildly, saying, “Shush, girl. You make too much noise for a man who has lost his hope. The girl got away, and so did the Good Lord.” And he opened the door to go into his apartment. Yet Chartres went on to give three more quick little barks. And he took regard to her. And he asked, “What do you tell me, girl?” And she grabbed him by his long-sleeved shirt cuff with her teeth and did pull him back out unto the front stoop. Once there the man could discern the pretty sound of a swishing of white silk. He looked. Behold, the bride the China doll of a girl come back for him! And he and Chartres ran up to her as fast as they could. And Flanders beat his dog in their race to come up to her.
“Welcome back, Xiao!” said Flanders. “That was quick. You were true to your word.”
“I’m glad to be back,” she said. “I apologize for having left you to wait like that and all.”
“You came back awfully fast for a girl who was just at her own wedding,” said Flanders.
“I did not get married,” said the China doll of a girl.
“You didn’t?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she said. “My bridegroom waits for me at the altar right now as I speak.”
“You should be there with him, Xiao,” said Flanders.
“I’ve got a cute guy to lead to the Lord first before I run off and marry my groom,” said the Oriental girl.
“O Xiao, you came back for your lost man,” said Flanders.
“That I did, Flanders,” she said, happy for him and for herself.
“You are pretty on the outside and pretty on the inside, Miss Xiao Xiu Xiong,” he said to her.
“I pray that Christ can be seen in me,” said the China doll of a girl.
“God’s love shines in you this day for having come back to tell me about Him to the compromise of your very own wedding day,” said Flanders.
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“I care for you, Flanders,” she said. “You’re cute.”
“And so are you, Xiao,” said the flattered man in sincerity.
“Ask away a question about God, Flanders, and I will try to answer it as best I can,” said Miss Xiong. “You were sad today, earlier, when you told me that you and Chartres will die someday and forever be separated from each other.”
“Yeah, Xiao,” he said. “When I die, I will be six feet under and be dead for forever.”
“That’s not so, Flanders,” said Xiao Xiong.
“Could it be that I am wrong about this, Xiao?,” he said. “You were talking to me about Heaven and Hell.”
“Heaven is for ever in the life to come, and Hell is for ever in the life to come,” said the China doll of a girl. “People die and live forever after in one of those two places. What they do about Christ in this temporary life determines where they go in the life after.”
“Then, when I die, I am not dead. Am I?” asked Flanders.
“That’s the false doctrine of annihilism, Flanders,” she said. “Animals do return to the dust after they die, but not people. Animals do not have souls. Only people have souls.”
“I believe now in a real Hell and in a real Heaven,” said Flanders. “I will not return to the dust and be just six feet under.”
“The Lord Jesus preached more about Hell than He did about Heaven,” said Miss Xiong. “As Jesus said in John 5:28-29, ‘Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.’ Again it is written, Flanders, in Matthew 25:46, spoken by Jesus, ‘And these shall go away into everlasting judgment: but the righteous into life eternal.’ And again it is written in Daniel 12:2, ‘And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’”
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“Heaven or Hell,” said Flanders Nickels. “The choice is easy. I choose Jesus.”
The China doll of a girl said, “The blessing of eternal life or the curse of the second death?”
“I choose everlasting life,” said Flanders.
“Let us bow our heads and pray and get you saved, Flanders Nickels,” said the Asian bride.
“I want to pray what you prayed when you got born again,” said Flanders.
“That we can do,” she said. “The words may be different or they may be the same that go into a sinners’ prayer. But there is no such thing as the wrong sinners’ prayer in a time like this, Flanders.”
“Would you lead me though it?” he asked.
“Line by line,” she said.
“Here I go!” he said in fervor and wonder.
And the two bowed their heads and the China doll of a girl led Flanders Nickels line by line through this prayer for salvation: “Dear Heavenly Father: I am a sinner. I do bad things. I should be punished. And I should pay for my sins. I deserve to pay for my sins by suffering for ever in Hell. There is fire down in Hell. And those down in Hell are damned. But You sent Your Son. He is Lord. And He paid for my sins by shedding His perfect blood on the cross. Jesus, the Son of God, died in my place to save me from Hell. And He arose again on the third day. That is the real Easter. The Holy Spirit teaches me these things, and I believe Him and I know them. Please hear me and forgive me and cleanse me. I ask You now to become my personal Saviour. And give me a place in Heaven in my life to come. In Jesus’s name I pray this. Amen.”
Thus Flanders Arckery Nickels became a born-again believer in Christ. And quite at once the China doll of a girl jumped up to her feet. “I’ve got to go now, Flanders,” she said.
“You’re going away?” he asked. “I just got saved, and you had a part of it.”
“Gotta go and get married, you know,” she said.
“Oh yeah. Your angel groom is waiting for you,” said Flanders.
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“My bridegroom could be any of the angels in Heaven,” she said with new thoughts. “He does not have to be Michael or Gabriel.”
“I dare say, Xiao—you do not even know the groom whom you are marrying. Is that not a very bad idea?” asked Flanders.
“Oh, but I dreamed about him,” she said. “I was standing with a spirit being before the altar, and I was wearing a wedding dress kind of what this one looks like, and the pastor declared us ‘husband and wife.’”
“Were you in love with him?” asked Flanders.
“Of course I was, Flanders,” she said.
“But you could not see any form of any man that made up what he was,” said Flanders.
“Does a groom have to be seen for a girl to love him?” asked the Oriental bride.
“Do you love him now?” asked Flanders.
“Of course,” she said hastily.
“Are you sure that that dream came from God, Xiao?” he asked.
She turned away from him and was quiet for a while, then said, “Pastor preached a very disturbing message to us in the flock a few days ago.”
“What did he preach?” asked Flanders.
“He told us that God no longer speaks to us in dreams and visions. He said that God stopped doing that kind of thing when the Holy Bible was done being written in the first century church,”
said the Asian bride.
“Your bridegroom, Xiao Xiong, is only a dream man made up in your own subconscious,” said Flanders, pondering out loud. “He never really loved you. Nor does he love you now.”
“My groom is not a real angel then?” asked the China doll of a girl.
“If he were a real angel, Xiao, could you touch him as you could a real man? Could he touch
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you as a boyfriend could? Could you see his face and tell him what a handsome dude he is? Could you call him ‘your real hunk?’ Can you see your prince in his handsome tuxedo who is waiting for you at the altar when you get there? Can a girl love a spirit being the same way she can love a husband? Further, can a spirit being love a woman as a man loves his wife? Angels and people are different kinds one from another. Men and women are the same kinds one with another.”
She sighed and said, “If my groom were a real angel, I would be most unhappy, married to him now. I can see that. But if my groom is not a real angel, then who is that that is at the altar right now?”
“Either a false hope from a dream or a liar or a demon,” said Flanders, thinking out loud, trying to figure this out.
“All three are all the wrong bridegrooms for this bride, Flanders,” declared the bride dreamer.
“I urge you, Xiao: Do not go there now,” said Flanders.
“I promise not to go there, Flanders,” said the China doll of a girl. But she turned away from Flanders and looked off toward where she had come from, off toward that church somewhere,
“Xiao,” he said.
“Yes, Flanders?” she asked, still looking off down the road.
“You told me how God once showed you His will for you when you needed to find Christ. Didn’t you?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I was lost, and I needed to learn the truth about Jesus.”
“You prayed that God show you where in the Bible that He wanted you to read,” said Flanders.
“Yes, Flanders,” she said, turning back to him now and looking at him. “I opened my Bible right to where God wanted me to open it, and I read six Scripture verses that changed my life. I found out about Hell; and not long later, I became a born-again Christian. Praise the Good Lord of miracles!”
“Well, Xiao, maybe might be a good time to do that now,” he said.
“I am still wondering about my groom,” she confessed. Then she said, “I better do what you
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think, Flanders.”
And she held up her King James Bible in both open palms, prayed, “O God, open this Bible, if You would for me, and show me what you want me to read about my wedding today.”
And the Holy Bible opened up to a place early in the New Testament. And the China doll of a girl read one verse out loud to herself and to Flanders: “’For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.’ Matthew 22:30.”
A most peaceful silence came among the three of man and woman and dog. After a while, Flanders spoke their thoughts, “So, angels do not marry after all.”
“I am happy now and free, Flanders,” said the bride in white. And there was no turning back of her head toward that altar out there.
“Praise the Lord!” said Flanders for his first time as a Christian.
“Thank you, Flanders,” said Xiao Xiong.
“Amen, girl!” said Flanders for his first time of many more such times to come.
“Flanders,” she said, “a girl need not be a real bride just because she goes around dressed in a bridal gown for her man.”
“By your ‘man,’ do you mean ‘me, ‘Xiao?” asked Flanders in ardor.
“I do, Flanders,” she said. “If I do not seem too dreamy a girl for a sensible guy like you.”
“I would be happy in my life with you as my girlfriend, Xiao,” he said. “And the wedding dress becomes you most attractively. And you become the wedding gown most femininely.”
“I could become your bridal dress girlfriend,” said the Oriental bride.
“I would like that for forever so very much,” he said to her.
“I am thinking about a popular song from way back right now, Flanders,” said Miss Xiong. “It had a happy line in it that makes me think about right now and about what will come after for the three of us.”
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“The three of us,” said Flanders. “A boyfriend and a girlfriend and a dog friend.”
“Yes, the three of us,” she said. “It was a real neat line of lyric that I remember.”
“I do believe that I know that song, too, girl,” he said.
And the two sang together spontaneously this line of this song, “You and me and a dog named, ‘Boo.’”
And then Flanders sang a more personal line of lyric to this same melody, with the words altered to fit the three here together now, “You and me and a dog named, ‘Chartres.’”
Then Flanders Arckery Nickels asked Xiao Xiu Xiong, “Would you become my China doll of a girl?”
And Xiao Xiu Xiong answered Flanders Arckery Nickels and said, “I would be glad to become your China doll of a girl.”
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