Keep On Knocking by Jeffrey McClain Jones

Author:Jeffrey McClain Jones [Jones, Jeffrey McClain]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

THE NEXT MORNING, BERTO WAS ALONE AT THE TABLE when Josiah arrived in the dining room. Matty and Tammy had spent the night at Grace and Jacob’s. The girls, Sienna and Arielle, had slept in Mom and Dad’s house, probably on the floor upstairs. Josiah had heard them talking to their cousin, Connie, in one of the bedrooms.

“Didn’t hear you come in last night.” Josiah regretted how much he sounded like a dad keeping track of a teenager.

Berto shrugged, scooping a spoonful of cereal. “Was pretty late, but I thought I saw your light on.”

“You must have come in on cat’s feet, then. I shut off my light before going to sleep, I’m pretty sure. Not a hundred percent, but …”

Laughing lightly through his nose, Berto chewed for a few seconds. He sobered. “Did Mom tell you I’m heading back east?”

“You have to get back to work?” Josiah knew Berto had been given an emergency leave of absence from the engineering firm.

He glanced at Josiah more vigilantly than usual. “Yeah, I’ll check in with them in person.”

Josiah decided not to scrutinize an apparent gap in Berto’s story. He didn’t want to barge in where Noah might have questioned the young man … five or more years ago. Berto was fully grown and independent now, but his manner made Josiah uncomfortable. As he cut into a wedge of cantaloupe, Josiah paused to wonder if that was simply his own emotional discomfort talking or if it might be discernment of something more significant. He lifted another silent prayer for his nephew.

“Are you flying out today?”

“Tonight. A redeye, I guess they call it. I don’t travel much these days.”

“No. Not like when your family was hopping from continent to continent.”

“Even then, we stayed put a lot. At least the rest of us did, besides Dad.”

Without planning, Josiah was assembling a bowl of fruit for his breakfast. He still hadn’t buckled down to define what he should be eating as part of the fast. He dropped a small handful of blueberries onto the chunks of cantaloupe and reached for a banana to slice into the cereal bowl. No cereal today. Maybe he could justify plain oatmeal, but the storebought granola seemed out of bounds for a fast limited to simple, unadorned food.

When he finished his cereal, Berto leaned back in his seat and watched Josiah add the last tip of the banana to his bowl. “I’m glad you and Grandma and Grandpa are gonna be praying. And I’m glad you’re here for Mom but I feel out of place here.” He took a deep breath. “Though, I’m not sure I can go anywhere that I’ll feel good, as long as Dad’s missing.”

That confession was another opportunity for Josiah to pray silently and hold his tongue. Josiah decided not to ask about long-term plans, assuming Berto didn’t have all that figured out. “I get it that you don’t approach things the same way as your grandparents. Different styles, different gifts, different beliefs. I get it.” He wanted to say more but worried that he didn’t really know what exactly they were talking about.

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