The Reluctant Prophet by Nancy Rue

Author:Nancy Rue
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: motorcycles, social justice, prophet, Florida, adoption, prostitution
Publisher: David C. Cook
Published: 2011-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

Geneveve went to another meeting with Leighanne and Nita the next morning.

“The goal is ninety meetings in ninety days,” Nita told me. “She can’t do this alone, not even for twenty-four hours.”

I had a small pity party for myself after they left because Geneveve had a group to go to on Sunday morning, and I no longer felt like I did. The bells ringing from the Episcopal church rang out taunts, telling me I was a loser for not being able to make my own people understand me or themselves or the God who was Nudging his way into my life. I was stark lonely, and I soon ran out of chocolate.

There was nothing to do then but beef up my safety plan for Geneveve. I started with a call to Lonnie’s cell phone to leave a message that I was going to have to cut back my work hours for a while. Even though I’d worked all week, I’d managed to avoid him since the day I left Bernard and the carriage for him to clean up. I knew he wouldn’t answer this early—

“Hey,” he said after the second ring.

“Oh,” I said, “it’s you.”

“Yeah, that’s would make sense since you dialed my number. I’m surprised you remembered it.”

“That’s why I called.” I tried to grab the upper hand by imagining him pulling his first toothpick of the day out of its box and sticking it between as yet unbrushed teeth. The hair was definitely sticking out in all directions like a sea urchin—

“I was gonna call you today anyways,” he said. “Basically to tell you I won’t be calling you. At all.”

“Oh,” I said. “So I’m finally being terminated.”

I snickered and waited for our usual conversation to take place—the one where he hemmed and hawed and gnawed and ended up telling me I was his best guide and he’d keep me on even though I drove him nuts.

But he sighed into the phone. “Listen. I like you, Allison, but I have to cut back because of the economy, and lately, you’ve kinda made yourself the logical choice.”

There was something odd in his voice, something not-Lonnie, as if he were reading from a card. I could no longer imagine the toothpick.

“That’s it?” I said. “Seriously?”

“You can come by and say good-bye to Bernard. That horse works better for you than he has for anybody. I don’t know who I’m gonna get to replace you who can—”

He stopped, caught in his own lie. I could imagine his face going red.

“You tell him for me, Lonnie,” I said. “Thanks for everything.”

When I hung up, I had one of those rare moments when I was tempted to wish I’d kowtowed to my parents just a smidge so I’d have a little cash to fall back on. But that passed with the sudden relief that shimmered through me. I had no clue how I was going to pay the utilities a few weeks from now, but I had a Nudge. Not a Nudge toward, but a Nudge away.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.