Manna & Other Stories: Stories Written with a Jehovah's Witness Audience in Mind by Lal Joseph

Author:Lal, Joseph [Lal, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

SMOKE

“[Hold] faith and a good conscience, which some have thrust aside, resulting in the shipwreck of their faith. Hymenaeus and Alexander are among these, and I have handed them over to Satan so that they may be taught by discipline not to blaspheme.— 1 Timothy 1:19,20

Remember ‘Bad News Al’ from the movie “The Prodigal Returns?” What happened to him after the events of that movie? Did he change his ways? The last we saw of him, he had abandoned David Barker in a car accident.

This story is a sequel to that film—a meditation of what could have happened next for him.

The brown coated Chicago PD officer handed the background information forms to James before he even said any words.

"This something that can give me some kind of big break?” Asked James with a lazy, defeated smirk as he sat in front of an unnaturally neatly ordered blue metal desk.

“Trust me. You don’t want the big break kid. It just means less work, less time with the kids and more headache for only marginally more pay,” replied the officer, giving a mini soapbox speech before getting to the point.

"This is from the Charleston case,” he continued as he took a seat on the black plastic padded office chair.

"That's the one about the hit on the lawyer who was going to convict the guy right? The one where he had a hired man shoot him before they could get a verdict?"

“Yeah. We got the details and everything on that situation and it looks like that case is going to be open and shut with an even more severe verdict. The defendant wasn't so smart on that one."

"Yeah?" James said disinterestedly as he shuffled through the papers he was handed.

“Yeah, but in the process of finding the hired gun that he used, we did background criminal checks on different people that he was in contact with over the last couple years or so. We found the guy he used fairly easily. In the process, we also found information on other guys that we checked up on that had limited association with the defendant in that case. That information in your hand is about one of the guys that we followed up on. Has a criminal record--couple years back--drunk driving and resisting arrest. Not involved in any violent activity but..."

"But big enough of a deal so that we should bring him in. Right?"

James put the papers down. He pulled out a cigarette.

"You kidding me?" The officer asked James in clear reference to the cigarette. “When!"

"Last week.” James said in reply, slurring his words through the cigarette between his lips and shaking his head. "Got in a fight with Carol. I thought—I needed—might as well just have one smoke--just one . Slippery slope that is.”

The big bellied officer crossed his arms and tightened his lips together. He leaned back against the wall and looked at James with a disappointed, judgmental scowl.

James scoffed at his expression.

"Ex-smokers like yourself are always the worst and most annoying when it comes to trying to help me quit you know.

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