He called

“Stop!”

She looked back as she ran down the road. Pebbles and sticks prodded at her feet as she passed over them. Alisha was out of breath, but she could still hear them behind her. She dropped down on her knees by the side of the gravel road and gasped out her breath. With a sigh she got back to her feet and ran on. If she didn’t keep ahead of him, he would shoot her or worse. Alisha struggled to keep her feet under her as she ran to a wood down the road about a mile. She could hear the dogs on her scent and the policeman yelling after her. She had been running when they first tried to get her and was already tired from her 5 mile jog she had just finished that day.

When she got to the woods she could still hear the man yelling after her.
“Come back! You can’t get away from me. It is getting too dark now so I’ll have to put on my goggles.” She shuddered as she tore on down the road. She knew that they wouldn’t stop until he got her ‘dead or alive’ as the old movies put it. She had to keep moving but she couldn’t. She thought a prayer and kept moving. Did she really believe that a prayer would bring her help? Could it? The thought stuck in her mind over the fear and pain. She prayed again, earnestly now.

She heard a whisper in the woods and turned her head to see who it was. Tripping over her feet she fell to the ground. Alisha looked over to see where the sound had come from. Baffled she raised herself to her feet and trudged down the road, unable to run any longer because she scraped had her knee when she fell. Again she heard the whisper, Now she could tell it was in front of her. Leaving the road she cautiously followed the sound. She heard the words now. Not clearly, but definitely.
“ Come quickly,”
The rest of the words were indistinct but those she understood. With renewed hope she ran on, wondering what could save her from the police and their dogs. Alisha ran into the darkness until her legs felt like jelly and her mind felt like dried glue not allowing thoughts to flow. She stumbled on a pile of rubbish and began to sob. She didn’t care anymore. What would happen to her if the policeman caught her anyway? She might get sent to jail for 6 months or a year. For what? nothing more than policeman scaring her. She pulled her legs up to keep her as warm as possible. It was autumn so it usually didn’t get down to 40 degrees at night. She would be cold, but not too cold. Alisha didn’t hear the whispering anymore so she thought it must have been subconscious keeping her going.



She didn’t know what woke her but it seemed to be her subconscious telling her to be cautious. Without moving a muscle she opened her eyes and scanned the visible surroundings. Something was beside her. Touching her! She opened her mouth to scream but realized as she started that if anyone heard her they would report it. All that came out of her mouth was yawn.
“Oh, you are awake.” a voice said uncomfortably close to her. She started up and started to run, but as she looked back she stopped in her tracks. The man had a gun in his hand and it was pointing at her head. Was it loaded? She couldn’t tell.
“You better come back,” the man said in a slithery voice. “Or else I might have to shoot you. I would rather not have to do that. You just come over here. I’ll take care of you."

This is worse than I had thought. She dragged herself back to the pile of rubbish and sat opposite the man who was obviously a policeman. As soon as her seat hit the pile the man took the gun and put it to her back. So I get shot either way. “Come over here.” He said holding one of her arms and keeping the gun pointed at her back with the other.

Alisha didn’t know what to do. She knew he didn’t have good intentions but he had said he would shoot her if she ran. She sat as far away from him as possible. Prodding her with the point of his gun he drew her to him. She resisted but she couldn’t get away. She thought of fighting him but she only knew a few moves and he had a gun. The word defiled kept running through her mind. She knew it was not her fault but it still echoed on. Defiled. Defiled! How can this be happening to me!? If her friends knew about this they would have nothing to do with her. Then again, if they knew she was going to church they wouldn’t have anything to do with her either.

She closed her eyes and tried to think of how to get away but the only thing she could think was...Defiled! Defiled! “No!” She Yelled.

“Yes.” The man slithered.

” Why did you run me down? What have I done?”

“This is why. I ‘Love’ you.”He laughed. A mocking slithery laugh.

He held her in a vice grip and pulled her to the ground. As she fell her head hit a rock and she crumpled unconscious. With an evil chuckle, he put his gun away.



Fred walked through the woods with his natural guide book sticking out of his back pocket. Bible in hand he stooped to look for the mushroom. He took the book from his back pocket and opened it to edible mushrooms. He looked at the picture and compared it to the one on the ground. It matched! He pulled it up and put it in the satchel slung over his shoulder. He put the nature guide back into his pocket and took up his Bible. He turned back to his place in the psalms and continued, one eye on the page and one eye on the path. He had been diagnosed with strabismus after a fever he had when he was 5. Now fifteen years later he had learned how to use his ‘disability” to move his eyes independently and so focus on two places almost at once. He only practiced this when he was alone because he tried once when his mother was looking at him and she screamed. Fred has to wear glasses most of the time for his condition, but when he goes into the forest he wants to read and walk at the same time so he takes them off and exercises his independent eyes.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” that was the first verse he had read but he couldn’t seem to get it out for his mind. Was God telling him what his parents had been telling him? ‘Nobody will ever come. You’re a klutz!’ They had told him. “No!” his subconscious said. “ If God wants you to marry, he will show you the one to marry.” And a voice outside him echoed. He wondered who. He knew someone would come. God would send someone. With that settled and off his mind, he realized that someone had screamed the ‘no’ he had heard. It was a woman's voice! His heart jerked and he could feel a dryness in his throat as he broke into a run. He stuffed his pocket Bible into his shackle. Was this the girl?! God had sent him a girl. He was right to trust God. The men at the church had told him to wait and he had. Now was God rewarding him? How would he know if she was the right one? Yes! He would pray.

For minutes he heard nothing but his own heart beating, and sticks and leaves crackling under his footfalls. Three crisp gun shots pierced the air. First, he wondered who would be shooting all the way out here and what they would be shooting at. A thought paralyzed him. They must be shooting at me! He dove down behind a tree and waited. He couldn’t hear anything but his heart beat and his breath, so he got back up. Fred re-calibrated himself to where he had heard the scream, and ran. He ran until he stumbled on a pile of rubbish. The same pile of rubbish Alisha had stumbled over the night before (not that it knew the difference). He jumped to his feet and started to run on when he heard a mumbled groan. He looked all around until his eyes finally alighted upon Alisha.

She lay at full length on the ground. She emitted another groan and closed her eyes. Fred ran and knelt beside her. He touched her shoulder and said.

“Are you okay?”
She opened her eyes and groaned. Once more. “NO!” She screamed. The police had left after shooting her. Startled, Fred jumped to his feet. He scanned her with one eye and kept the other pinned on her face. She WAS hurt! No mistake. She had been shot three times. The three shots he had heard echoed in his mind as the realization hit him. He knelt beside her and put his hand to her breast. She had been shot there he knew, but he didn’t see any blood. He unzipped her hoodie (He hated hoodies) and pulled out a book. The book had stopped the bullet.
“ A Bible.” he exclaimed.
“Yes.” She sighed. “ My Bible.”
“But” he pointed to her legs. Two red blotches stained her pants at the thigh.
“ You are wounded! How did it happen?”
“I’m defiled! You hear? Defiled!”
“What?”
“Yes. Defiled. Been raped!”
“I need to get you back home! Before it gets dark.”
“No! Leave me!”
“ I have to get you back.”
“ Why? I haven’t reason to live.”
“I’m getting you back.”
Fred grabbed her by the waist and lifted her onto the pile of rubbish.
“You know something about the Bible. Right? You have one. God sent us to live in the world. I don’t pretend to know everything but I do know that God needs you. Alive.”
He put her over his shoulder and carried her home. Alisha fell unconscious from the pain in her legs.




Alisha woke as she felt a dull pain in her right leg. Fred had pulled the bullet out of her left leg and had now taken the bullet out of the right. Alisha had woken from the pain of the procedure.
“ You will be okay. Now tell me how this all happened.”
She told all she knew about it as he dressed her wounds. She finished and he said she should rest.




A month later.

“ Do you Alisha Wade, take Frederik Hendlin to be your husband.
“ I do.”
“Do you Fredrik Hendlin, take Alisha Wade to be your wife.”
“I do.”
“ I pronounce You husband and wife.”


As you know reader, this is too easy. Understand that in the interlude many discussions transpired, the couple decided that this was the best way. They opened up their hearts and pulled out the bullets that were stopping their love, so to speak.

Alisha had wished from the start to get an abortion but through many discussions and tears, they decided to keep the baby. They saw it as God taking what was meant by men for evil and God using it for good.

So, they lived happily ever after. No, that too would be too easy. Everybody has had problems, troubles, and sins. But God gives grace to the humble. God had miraculously shown the way. Alisha would never have gone there, and Fred would never have found Alisha without God.

Although Their first child is not both of theirs, they still love her. They might even love her more since she is a symbol of God’s guiding. Rasha, (Alisha and Fred’s first child) lives now showing others the way to love.

The End