Abiding Darkness: A Novel by John Aubrey Anderson

Author:John Aubrey Anderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780446565301
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2009-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The parking lot in front of Missy's dormitory was three acres of suitcases, tennis rackets, and golf bags, all with sunburned coeds attached. Missy directed David Patterson to a parking spot, and he got out to help with her bag.

She tried to beat him to the trunk. “I'll get it.”

Patterson already had the bag in his hand. “Look, Missy, I work for your dad now. And even if I didn't, I ought to be helping you with your bag.”

Missy put her hand on the suitcase grip with his. “But you don't work for me. An' I don't want a chauffeur. An' I don't want any help.”

“I need to tell you one thing, Missy.”

She had to listen because he still held a grip on her suitcase. “What is it?”

“If the answer you've come up with to that important question is better than mine, why would you shut me out without telling me what it is?”

A car brushed by behind her and someone called her name. Missy didn't hear her friend because her attention was fixed on what David Patterson had said.

Last night she had asked him a question that could tell her whether or not he was a Christian, and when he gave every indication that he wasn't, she turned her back on him. Missy Parker, the girl who said she wanted to know God and make Him known, possessed the open secret of eternal life, and she refused to share it. Instead, she used her beliefs as a criterion to determine whether to befriend the person to whom she owed her life. She thought, If I won't befriends with people who aren't Christians, who will I talk to about how much God loves us? This guy holding her suitcase and smiling at her had caught her red-handed, and she didn't like it.

She said, “Is that all?”

“Yes, ma'am.” Patterson almost laughed out loud at her stubbornness, and she reddened under her new tan.

He got back into the car and grinned. “I'll see you the next time you come home.”

Missy thought, Not if I can help it. She dropped the suitcase at her feet and watched him leave.

“Who was that hunk of hombre? Polly stood at her elbow, watching the car drive off.

“That's the jerk my daddy just hired to work at the gin, an' be my chauffeur an' bodyguard.”

“What'd you do with Hull?”

“Not enough. He's still alive.”

Polly divided her attention between the departing car and Missy's black eye. “Huh?”

“I'll tell you later.”

Polly watched the car until it was almost out of sight. “This bodyguard-gin-worker-chauffeur…have you got your stamp on him?”

“Never.”

“Oh? What's wrong with him?”

“Everything. He's nice, smart, an' good-looking. An' he saved my life.” She swiped at the tears on her cheeks. An' I just got through treatin' him like a fungus.

“Can I have him?”

“Dear heart, you can have every confounded one of 'em. I'm gonna be a nun.” She picked up her bag, and Polly followed her to their room to hear about Hull.

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