Chanitok, L.I.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Around 6:30 PM. on Wednesday evening, Gwen accompanied Jimmy to the All You Can Eat Burger’s and Fries, which stood beside Mitchell Road; the main thoroughfare going through Chanitok. When they entered the brightly lit, noisy dining establishment, the place was crowded with customers, and the thick aroma of burgers, fries and ketchup.

Jimmy pointed over to the line of booths set up beside the windows.

“Over there.” He said, and waved at people in one of the booths.
He and Gwen made their way through the crowd of customers, and waitresses clearing off the tables, or bringing the customers’ their orders. They came up to a booth, where two Chanitok High students were seated together on one side of the table. They both were dining on burgers and fries, while having soft drinks from plastic cups.

“Hi?” Gwen spoke with surprise. “Hi Beth? Mark?”

These two classmates of hers both looked uneasy.

The girl Beth was a Senior. She spoke calmly. “Good evening Gwen.”

Mark, a member of the Chanitok High Junior Class, said, “Hi.”

Gwen asked with a tone of unbelief, “You’re both Born Again Christians?”

Mark put a finger to his lips.

Beth said, “Keep it down.” She patted her hand downward.

Gwen and Jimmy slid into the seat across the table from their classmates. Gwen sat between Jimmy and the window. Through the window she saw darkness and cars filling the parking lot, or passing by along the street.

Gwen told Beth, “You being a Born Again Christian explains a lot. I’ve heard people saying that you’ve stopped having sex. They said it was ‘cause you’ve got some kind of sexually transmitted disease, after having unprotected sex. Of course I didn’t believe that.”

“Hey!” Mark was annoyed, but kept his voice down. “There’s no reason for you to repeat those really mean and nasty things that people are saying about her; which, by the way, aren’t true. Beth and I have been going steady for more than a year, and every time we have sex, I always have a condom wrapped on tight.
Besides, she is in good health, and we also haven’t stopped having safe sex. On Saturday Night, right after the Homecoming Dance, I had safe sex with in her own bed, not the motel; and we’re gonna be having safe sex again, later tonight, in my own bed.”

“Okay.” Gwen told him and Beth, “Okay. I’m sorry. I apologize. I’ll be careful what I say.”

“Stop it Mark.” Beth said, “Stop lying. I don’t want you lying to protect me.”

Mark looked at her, not knowing what to say.

“He was lying?” Now Gwen was surprised. “You mean you really have stopped having sex? You don’t really have a sexually transmitted disease, do you Beth?”

“No!” Beth snapped. “I am in good health. It’s like Mark said; when we were having sex, we always did it safely; and only with each other. But it is true that I have stopped having sex. I’m not gonna have sex again until my wedding night; and I’m not gonna let any guy see me naked again either, until then.”

“You’re kidding? It sounds like you want to stop being a complete woman?”

“Believe it or not, there actually are plenty of uncompleted girls in the12th Grade, Gwen.”

“Yeah, but those girls are losers. You’re not a loser Beth, and yet you’re the only High School girl I’ve ever heard say that she doesn’t want to have sex with anybody.”

“You see Gwen, I am a Born Again Christian; and for a Born Again Christian woman, delaying sex until marriage, is considered a virtue.”

“’Virtue’? Yeah, I know it was a real virtue for a very long time; but that was before we had condoms, I.U.D.s and everything else that’s needed to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. But now we do have those things, so I figure that the only ‘sin’ involved in sexual activity, would be having unprotected sex, or marital infidelity. I’ve even heard Pastor Cabell say so.”

A waitress came over, and the two newcomers both ordered burgers, fries and root beers.

Gwen then told Mark and Beth, “When Jimmy asked me to come to one of your meetings; I thought there’d be a lot more of you. Are you three the only Born Again Christians in town?”

Mark told her, “It seems that way, but Jesus did say that wherever two or three people are gathered in His Name, He would be in their midst; and I’m sure that there must be ‘More than ten righteous men in the city’.”

“Then the three of you can’t be all that much of a threat, can you?”

Beth sighed. “The threatened people are us.”

They resumed quietly eating for a few moments.

Then Jimmy spoke. “I’ve asked Gwen to join us, because she has some questions about the Bible, that no one’s given her a satisfactory answer.”

Beth asked, “Is it about Marge and Dave? Did you really say that they’re in Hell?”

“No! I never said that. That’s something I wish people would stop saying. It just isn’t true. I was asking to hear some words of comfort about it; but so far, all I’ve heard is theology; both heretical and orthodox. I haven’t heard anything comforting.”

Beth told her, in a lowered voice, “The Bible does say, ‘Though he slay me, yet shall I trust him’.”

“Oh. I’ve heard that before, but I just don’t have that kind of faith.” She lowered her own voice. “Do you know any Bible verses that can comfort someone with very little faith, like me?”

“Let’s see.”

Beth turned to her side and zipped open her handbag that lay on the seat beside her.

Jimmy spoke quietly. “You’re not gonna take out a Bible in front of everybody in here, are you?”

“It’s okay. It’s a booklet.”

Beth reached in her handbag and took out a small, hand size booklet. She, Mark and Jimmy looked around cautiously.

“Wait a minute.” Now Gwen asked, “If you think you have to be so careful, why have you let Jimmy join your group? He just enrolled about two weeks ago. You don’t know anything about him. What makes you think you can trust him?”

She looked at Jimmy and said, “Sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

“I do know a lot about him.” Mark said, “Jimmy’s my cousin. His father and my father are brothers. I knew he was Born Again, before they moved here.”

Beth placed the booklet on the table in front of her, and tapped it with her finger.

She said, “This is the Gospel according to Matthew.”

She opened the pages, came to the place she searched for, and began to read.

“’Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who among you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“’And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’”

Now Beth looked up from the booklet and spoke to Gwen. “Do you find any comfort in what I just read?”

“Yeah.” Gwen nodded, “A little; but things might get very uncomfortable for you, if Pastor Cabell finds out that you were reading from the Bible, without somebody sitting here next to you, to point out where it’s wrong.”

Beth sighed.

Mark said, “Well I hope you’re not gonna tell him.”

“No.” Gwen shook her head. “Why would I? He’s not someone who I ever want to have any kind of a conversation with. I don’t know why anybody would.
Besides, what has she just read, that could possibly offend anybody?”

Jimmy said, “She read that human beings are more valuable than birds. That would be considered ‘demeaning to birds’. ”

“’Demeaning’?” Gwen laughed. “Even if it is, birds don’t know what we’re saying.”

“Maybe they do; and even if they don’t, some Animal Rights Advocates might start harassing anyone who reads that aloud.”

Now Mark spoke, “It also says that when we’re in need, we should look to God for help. It doesn’t say anything about seeking help from the Government.”

Beth added, “It also says that He will give us all the help we need, if we turn away from sin, and live the way He wants us to. That means we should stop doing a lot of things that the world expects from us.”

“Is that why you’ve decided to stop having sex until your wedding night?”

Beth nodded. “The problem is that when we stop doing things like that, which the World expects from us, we might get ourselves in serious trouble.”

Now Jimmy spoke. “The question is, who do we want to avoid trouble with? Government Agencies, Animal Rights Organizations, or any kind of Rights Organizations?”

Beth added, “Trouble with Pastor Cabell; or our parents, or a lot of kids at School, and who knows who else? It’s either getting ourselves in trouble with all of them, or getting in trouble with God.”

Jimmy said, “We’d prefer to avoid trouble with God.”

Mark told Gwen, “That’s why we’d like you not to repeat anything you’re hearing from us here tonight.”

“No problem.”

Beth suddenly sat up straight, with a gasp.

“Oh my God!” She quietly exclaimed. “Gwen. It’s your mother.”

Gwen turned around facing in the same direction as Beth.

Irene Sandrell had just entered the All You Can Eat. She was moving along the aisle, stopping at every booth, shaking hands and smiling at everyone.

“Good evening.” She kept repeating, “I’m Irene Sandrell. I’m running as Inclusive Party Candidate for Town Council.”

Beth quickly put the booklet she’d just read from, back in her handbag and zipped it shut.

“Gwen.” She spoke nervously. “Please don’t tell her we’re Born Again Christians. I know you’re mother’s a Leftist and they want to destroy everyone of us who believes that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. I don’t want her to give us any trouble.”

“Neither do I.” She said uncomfortably. “But I told her that Jimmy said he was Born Again.”

The other girl gasped. Mark patted her shoulder.

Now Irene Sandrell came up to the booth, occupied by her daughter and her friends. A reporter moved alongside the candidate, taking notes.

“Good evening Gwen.” She smiled at her daughter.

“Hi Mom.” The girl smiled back. “This is Jimmy. He’s Mark, and she’s Beth.”

“Good evening Jimmy. Mark. Beth.”

Mark and Beth tried to act calm.

All three of Gwen’s companions said, “Good evening Mrs. Sandrell.”

“Hello.”

Now the woman said, “So you’re Jimmy, the boy who escorted my daughter to the Homecoming Dance.”

Jimmy also sat there uncomfortably. “Good evening Mrs. Sandrell.”

Gwen’s mother said, “She also says that you asked if she’d like you to be her steady boyfriend. She told me she would.”

He looked away from the woman, very uncomfortably.

Then she said, “She also says that you’re a Born Again Christian.”

The boy nodded, still looking away from her, while the reporter wrote something down.

“She said you’d be taking her with you to a meeting.”

No one in the booth said anything.

The woman asked, “How about you Mark? Beth? Are you Born Again?”

Beth looked away from the candidate.

Gwen said, “On Saturday night after the Dance, they were at the Motel like the rest of us.”

Beth and Mark both looked at each other uneasily. Then they looked away from everyone else.

Gwen added, “Do they sound like Born Again Christians?’

”I see.” The candidate Irene Sandrell spoke to the reporter. “I don’t like the idea of our teenage sons and daughters engaging in sexual activity in motel rooms; even when it is safe and responsible sex. Too many unsavory things go on in motels; and there are too many unsavory characters. A home filled with love, is always the best place for it.”