Once You Go In by Carly Gelsinger

Author:Carly Gelsinger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2018-11-26T16:00:00+00:00

Danny and I are raking leaves for a family of the church that owns a large piece of property on the canyon, a job that many of us church kids do when we need some extra cash. Danny isn’t carrying his weight on the job today, but I don’t care. I’m just so thankful to get some one-on-one time with him.

“What would you do if I turned into the Hulk right now? You’re just raking leaves and you turn around and I’m totally green and grunting,” he asks, leaning against his plastic rake.

“Does that mean we’d get this job done faster?” I ask.

“Well, I’m the Hulk, I think that should go without saying,” he says.

“But what if the Hulk doesn’t care about raking leaves? Maybe he’d rather, like, go kick down that shed over there,” I say, pointing to a dilapidated wood structure.

“True. Actually, I kind of want to kick down that shed over there right now.”

“Don’t. Forget I said it.”

“Danny is HULK,” he says slow and grumbly, lumbering toward the shed.

I sigh, but I’m stifling a laugh. Physical labor is not Danny’s thing. He talks a lot, tells a lot of jokes, takes a lot of breaks, and has a hard time concentrating on the monotony of scraping the ground of debris. Danny is meant for more than raking leaves.

“Is it lunch time yet?” he asks. I check my phone—it’s only 10 a.m.

“Sure, why not,” I say, feeling bored from the work myself. We sit on a giant tree stump overlooking the river, eating the sandwiches we packed. The river from this distance looks like a painting, its rapids frozen in time and so quiet. I look out at it, loving this moment between us.

“I have some big news for you,” he says. My heart stops, like it does when anyone ever says they have big news. “The Nazirite preacher invited me to work for him,” he says.

“You mean . . . the preacher?”

“Yes. I know, just hear this.” I have a mouthful of ham so I nod. “He picked me. Out of thousands of people, he wants me.”

“But his church is in Los Angeles.”

“Yep. I leave next week.”

“Next week?! That’s so soon.” All of a sudden I can feel the tree stump’s sharp edges poking into my tailbone.

“I know. When God moves, He really moves. It was crazy how this all worked out. I wasn’t even looking for a job. Isn’t that just so Jesus, though?”

“How did he find you?”

“We met at the Candlestick Park revival, remember that one?”

“Yeah.” Apparently when I was wandering the stadium with the other lukewarm kids, Danny was meeting the preacher.

“He said I have a special calling over my life. We got to talking, and I mentioned that I do graphic design. He tracked me down through Pastor Frank and called me last week,” he says. “He needs someone to design his brochures and church website.”

“That’s . . . that’s incredible,” I say. I’m letting the reality sink in that in a week, Danny will be living at the opposite end of the state.

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