Following the right person leads us to the right places. @theGatheringNow

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Day Twenty-Five: Courage – Part III

Apr 25, 2008 10:46 pm by Paul Jenkins in 30 Days of Fiction

Did you miss Part I or Part II

Jack pulled into the driveway of his one-story ranch style home and turned off the engine. There was no better feeling that coming home after a hard day’s word. Kathy, his wife of nearly thirteen years, would surely be fixing dinner. “As if she doesn’t do enough,” Jack said to himself. Besides keeping up with their 10 year old son, Jacob, and the house work, she still found time to volunteer down at the local boys home. What had started as a once-a-week commitment had quickly turned into a daily routine. She loved the boys like her own, and they loved her back just as much. Jack smiled. He’d found a treasure in Kathy and he whispered praise to God for the blessing He’d given him.

He slammed the car door and went in the house. “I’m home,” he called.

“I’m in the kitchen!” Jack was there before she finished yelling. He knew where she’d be and he grabbed her and spun her around. “I missed you today, ” he whispered in her ear. She smiled and gave him a hug followed by a playful spank. “Put the potatoes on the table and go get cleaned up. And hurry,” she added with a giggle, “we’re hungry!”

Tomorrow: Courage – Part IV


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Day Twenty-Four: Courage – Part II

Apr 24, 2008 8:42 pm by Paul Jenkins in 30 Days of Fiction

Did you miss Part I

It hadn’t been a good day for Billy. His mother was at work and she had left an unusually long list of things for him to do. Not it was 4:30, a half-hour before she’d be home, and he wasn’t even halfway through. He tried to hurry, even cutting a few corners here and there, but by 5:00 he wasn’t sure he was any further than he had been an hour earlier.

He knew his mother would yell. She had been so on edge since his dad had dies six months earlier. Instead of dealing with her grief, she had chosen to throw herself into her job at the local textile mill. A normal week for her now included at least 20 hours of overtime. Every day was the same – work until night, come home, fall asleep exhausted. Billy had gotten lost in the shuffle.

He tried to do everything his mother asked. He knew how shattered her life was and so he just wanted to do as much as he could to keep things as normal as possible for her. All he wanted was her help, too, which, until now, wasn’t very much.

The phone rang and Billy was relieved to hear his mother’s voice on the other end. It meant she would be working late, and he’d have more time to finish the list. He hung up the phone and hurried to do the dishes.

Tomorrow: Courage – Part III


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Day Twenty-Three: Courage – Part I

Apr 23, 2008 9:32 pm by Paul Jenkins in 30 Days of Fiction

Jack’s work was done and he was glad. He hated working Saturdays, especially hot ones. He had known that there would be days like these when he’d started his own business 2 years earlier, but he didn’t have to like them. Still, there was a bit of satisfaction in making a customer happy, and Jack was the kind of man who still thought that meant something.

Even as a teen walking down Main Street in Edgemont, he knew he wanted to have a sign above his business someday, and now he did. RICHARDSON AUTO REPAIR. He smiled as he read it again. Head held high, he filled his lungs with air the way only a proud man can. He had started from scratch, and now the shop had grown into one of Edgemont’s biggest and most respected businesses. He started his car and pulled out onto Highway Nine. As he watched the shop shrink in the rear view mirror, he exhaled slowly and deeply, then rounded the corner and headed for home.

Tomorrow: Courage – Part II


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Day Twenty-Two: The Man on the Rock – Part IV

Apr 22, 2008 7:41 am by Paul Jenkins in 30 Days of Fiction

Did you miss Part I, Part II or Part III?

My rest complete, I crawled up the last few feet and peered over the edge to see the man. To my horror and disappointment, he wasn’t there! I scrambled to the top and began searching frantically for the man who had so inspired my climb. Realizing that my search was in vain, I closed my eyes. I pictured the man and for the first time I saw how small he had been in comparison to the rock. I felt the power of the rock and I realized where his power had come from. He had merely been an extension of the rock. My mind raced with unanswered questions. What had been his purpose? How had he found the rock? Why me now?

Without warning, something stirred below where I had once been. As I looked closely, I noticed that someone had fallen and, finally, it all made sense. Just as the man had led me to this place of oneness with the rock and stability in the wind, so he had been led by a man, and that man by another man, and another man before him, and so on. They had all climber the rock and in turn stood as an example to unstable men of the stability that comes in being totally dependant upon the rock. Realizing this, I humbly accepted my role in this cycle of men.

At once, the power of the rock surged through my being and, shoving my hands deep into my pockets and drawing my face tight, I leaned into the wind. And as the men before me had, and the men after me would, I became the man on the rock.


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Day Twenty-One: The Man on the Rock – Part III

Apr 21, 2008 5:18 pm by Paul Jenkins in 30 Days of Fiction

Did you miss Part I or Part II?

The man was much clearer now and I could see the rigidness in his stance. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets and his face was drawn tight. His hair was blown by a fierce, swirling wind which made the gusts I had felt below seem more like a breeze. And yet this man stood firm. What power he had! I longed even more to be near him.

As I rose to continue the climb, the wind increased. Its velocity seemed to grow with every step. Occasionally I would brace myself against a tree until, finally, there were no more. I sank to the rock, trembling, shaken by the realization that it was all I had left to cling to. In the wild wind, I had become totally dependant upon it for my survival.

I rose once more, this time with renewed determination and commitment. Clinging to the rock, I crawled up the rest of the incline until I reached a small ledge just below the top. Here I was able to rest for a moment and, for the first time since I had begun my climb, I lost sight of the man.

Tomorrow: The Man on the Rock – Part IV


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