CHAPTER 9 

When we got to the Pines, Vinny Sawyer was waiting on us. We knocked on the front door, and Vinnie let us in.

“Hey boys, Clyde said y’all ‘ud be here. I got two rooms ready, but they’s not on the same floor. One of ‘em’s on the second floor and t’other’s up on the 3rd. Iff’n you boys ‘ud rather stay t’gether, I got a real nice rollaway cot that I could put in the room with the two single beds. That one’s on the second floor. Y’all’s call.”

Trail spoke up. “We’ll take the one with the two single beds and the cot. And, thank you, Vinnie. We really appreciate it.”

“No trouble, boys. The regular ones left here are all upset over Ms. Watson vanishin’.” Vinnie shook his head. “It’s a dang peculiar thing. Gives me the creepin’ horrors thinkin’ about it, it does.”

“Vinnie, how many regulars do you have living here at the Pines?” asked Mitch, a thoughtful expression creasing his brow.

“Oh, we got five regulars that stay an’ live here all the time, not counting Ms. Watson. They’s me, Jimmy Morgan, Norm Baker, Ed Waters, and Hank Brock. We live here full time and Ms. W, she rents out t’other three rooms whenever they’s somebody to rent ‘em too,” said Vinnie as he led us up to the room we were all going to share. “Y’all hang loose while I go pull that spare bed out.”

“Here, I’ll give you a hand Vin,” Trail chimed in. “Where is it?”

“You’re in luck, Terrell; it’s in a storage room on this floor. Not hard to git to a’tall.”

Vinnie got the folding bed set up (a really nice sturdy one that actually looked like it might be as comfortable as the twin beds). As he found bedding, sheets, a thick blanket, and a couple of extra pillows to go with it, I decided to ask the question we all needed to find out. “Vinnie, besides Mrs. Watson, has anyone else vanished?”

Vinnie looked up from making the bed. “From the Pines, you mean?”

“Yes, that’s what I mean.”

“Well, just one. We cain’t find Hank Brock neither. Y’all know him?”

“No, I don’t.” Mitch and Trail shook their heads as well.

“Well, Hank’s only been here a little under a year, so’s you boys might not know him lessen y’all went to his church.”

“His church?” asked Mitch, rather sharply.

“Yup, he was assistant pastor of that New Hope Community Church. Real nice guy. I liked Hank a whole lot better’n that slick Willie that’s the head preacher there now. Hank’s real, a down-to-earth, kind person… Vinnie paused, a look of concern evident on his face. “At least he was.”

“I wonder if the pastor is gone too,” said Mitch, thinking out loud.

“Nope, he ain’t,” said Vinnie. “He’s still here. He come runnin’ in here Saturday afternoon all het up lookin’ for Hank and mumblin’ stuff about EMP’s and clouds and Jesus and stuff. Wasn’t makin’ no sense a’tall to me.”

Trail chimed in. “What was his reaction when you told him Hank was gone?”

“He went about as white as that there sheet. I tole him Ms. W was gone too, and I thought he was gon’ bust into tears right there in the lobby. I got him a drink of water and tole him to sit down. Asked him if he wanted me to fetch Doc Barnette from over to the clinic to check him over. I didn’t want him havin’ no stroke or nuthin right there in the middle of the lobby, but he allowed as how he was fine; and in truth, the color was comin’ back to his face. I tole him that Hank’d probly show back up sooner or later – Ms. W too – although I don’t know no such thing. He just looked at me kinda funny-like and said, “No Mr. Sawyer, they aren’t coming back – at least not for a long while; and when they do, they won’t be the same as they were before. They are all safe now. It’s us who are in grave danger; we’re the ones who’ve been left here.”

“Was real peculiar,” said Vinnie.

“What’s this guy’s name, Vinnie,” asked Trail.

“I dunno… Farrell? Somethin’ Farrell. Last name’s Farrell anyways. I dunno his first name.” Vinnie walked towards the door.

“Wait Vinnie,” I said. “Before you go, do you know if that new church has a parsonage near the church like Calvary Baptist does?”

“I don’t think so. Big Mike might know though,” he said as he closed the door, leaving us on our own.

“I know,” said Mitch. I’d completely forgotten that he said his parents had gone to that church. “The pastor’s name is Will Farrell. Mom said he capitalized on that by trying to be a hipster funny guy like his Hollywood namesake. Mom and Dad didn’t like him much. I don’t know why they stayed at that church. Maybe they did like this Hank guy. Anyway, New Hope doesn’t have a parsonage. Farrell lives on the same street as the Church though, so he shouldn’t be too hard to find. About the Kingdom Hall, I have no clue. Can’t be many of them at all, and they’re likely as old as those at Calvary. Norrisville’s not exactly a thriving, growing metropolis.”

“Oh no! David’s letter!” I shouted. “We left it back at Mike’s.”

“No, we didn’t.” Mitch opened his shirt and pulled the envelope out. “I slid it inside my shirt before we left. I still didn’t want to read it in front of Mike and Clyde before we got a chance to read it first, and I didn’t want to leave it there. I don’t think they’d have read it, but I dunno; it’s addressed to me – to us. I want us to read it first, that’s all.”

“You sly devil,” said Trail, as a slight smile crept slowly across his face. “You and Bobby are certainly showing signs of latent criminal tendencies. First Bobby breaks into a preacher’s house, then you steal David’s bike, and now you hide that letter inside your shirt and sneak it out right under a cop’s nose. Very shady, boys. Very shady. Y’all gettin’ too criminal for me. I can’t have my sterling reputation besmirched hanging around riff-raff such as you two.”

“Shut up Trail,” both Mitch and I countered at the same time, but lightheartedly. “Besides,” I said, looking over at Mitch, “I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that: (A) Clyde already noticed that it was in your bag, and (B) he also knows that you snuck it out inside your shirt. Clyde may talk like a hillbilly hick, but he’s sharp as a dagger, and he misses nothing.

“You’re probably right. I just didn’t want to advertise it till we saw what’s in it first.”

Trail spoke up, again with that knowing expression. “Well, let’s see what Dave has to say. Although, I bet I know exactly what he’s going to say in that letter.”

I thought I did too, now; and I think Mitch did as well.

CHAPTER 10

DAVID’S Letter – dated January 5, 2019

“Alright guys,” David’s letter began, “I have a lot to say, and since I don’t want this letter to end up being as long as War and PEACE (which it likely will be anyway), I’m going to jump right in.

I’m putting all this into a letter because I don’t think y’all will take me seriously if I try to tell you outright. None of you have been exactly receptive when I’ve tried to bring up matters of life and eternity. I’m not upset guys, just laying all the cards out on the table, so to speak. It’s vital that I be as clear and concise as possible because I’m really getting a sense that time is running out. I’ll do my best to explain.

First of all, I want to begin by making sure you understand that your eternal salvation is the most important decision you will ever make. I’m going to lay it all out for you, and then I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen if you keep putting off that most important choice and you end up being left behind after the rapture – about what’s going to happen if you keep going as you are. I love you guys. You are all brothers to me. We’ve spent our whole lives together as brothers from different mothers. I want us to spend eternity together as brothers in the family of God, so I’m going to give you the great news of eternal salvation that is available through Jesus Christ, but then I’m going to end with the most solemn warning I know; so consider this to be a Message From One of the Missing.

Secondly, you have to understand why salvation is so crucial. In order to do that, we all need to come face to face with what we are and why we need a Savior. When I say “we,” I mean everyone everywhere. See, the problem is that we are all born under what the Bible calls the curse of sin. Think of it this way: we, our spirits that’s us, the immortal part of us that never dies, is conceived infected, if you will, with a fatal spiritual flaw. The consequences of that defect of our spirit is that our immortal spirits are separated from the God who created us and everything that exists.

God is a Triune being – God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. All three are separate and individual Persons, yet all three distinct Persons make up the ONE being who is God. There is only ONE God who eternally exists in THREE Persons. This concept of the eternally existent ONE God who exists as three distinct Persons is hard for our finite minds to grasp; nevertheless, it’s what is TRUE. Just like God is a triune being, so too is man. We are made up of body, mind and spirit.

When God created the first man and woman (Adam and Eve), He created them as an integrated whole; they were perfectly in tune with God, sinless up to the instant of their rebellion. Thus, they were able to fellowship and interact with God on a personal level. Now, God could have created them with no choice but to obey Him, like a machine that we create to serve our purposes; but He didn’t. God gave all sentient beings, both angelic and human, the ability to choose to love and obey Him or to choose to reject His love. God is love. In fact, because He is eternal, He is all powerful, all knowing, and always present everywhere. If He were not these things in His very essence, He would not be God.

God is the wellspring – the fountainhead of every superlative ideal that man has always aspired to reach. God is the perfection of all that is the essence of Love, Mercy, Grace, Justice, Honor, Holiness, and so forth. He is the ultimate of all those ideals. No created beings, angelic or human, can ever be greater than the One who created them. Thus, all created angelic and human beings had within them the potential to choose to obey or rebel. One third of the angelic realm chose to follow God’s highest angelic creation, Lucifer, in his rebellion. Lucifer became Satan, which means “adversary.” God gave to mankind – beings created as the Bible says, ‘a little lower than the angels.’

Mankind is lesser in intellect, lesser in power, and lesser in understanding than the angelic realm, yet it was to man – to Adam and all his progeny who would be born after him and from his lineage – it was mankind that God created in His image and gave all mankind a spirit like God’s own so that man and God could commune together in a way even the angels, though far superior to man in knowledge, intellect, and power, did not have. To man – to Adam and Eve, beings lower than the angels – God gave the ability to choose to live and obey Him or to choose to reject God’s one stipulation of obedience, or to follow their own way over His. Eve was beguiled by Satan in the guise of a serpent, but Adam knowingly and willfully chose to rebel against God’s one stipulation. It was through that one act of rebellion that sin entered the world (Genesis chapters 1-3).

Adam’s choice to disobey severed the spiritual connection between him and Creator God. The instant Adam chose to disobey, that perfect spiritual connection was immediately severed. What Adam lost was his intimate spiritual connection to his Creator. The consequence of that loss was that, not only did Adam, Eve, and all those conceived and born from them begin to die physically; but in that instant, the immortal part of them – their spirits – were immediately separated from God. As a result of Adam’s choice to rebel, the immortal, never-dying spirits of all mankind were forever separated from God, doomed to suffer the same eternal separation from God – doomed to endure the eternal torment that God had decreed for the rebellious Satan and the horde of rebelling angels who followed Satan into perdition. This is why mankind was lost and without hope.

Satan and the one-third of angelic beings who followed him are completely without hope of redemption, but God loved mankind so much, and having known even before He created man that mankind would rebel, it had already been decided among the Godhead that God the Son – the divine second Person of the Trinity – would clothe Himself in human flesh and would, in the fullness of time, be born into humanity through a young Jewish virgin, thus becoming God the Father’s “only begotten Son” – meaning the only one of His kind. God the Son would be the One and only God/Man – both fully human and fully divine (John 1:1-14; John 3:14-18). Only HE was qualified to pay in full the penalty that Adam’s sin incurred on behalf of all humanity. An infinite penalty was incurred so an infinite ransom had to be paid in order to satisfy the infinite justice.

This was a condition that no man could ever qualify to meet; a debt that no man could ever be able to pay. God chose to become a man so that HE could pay that penalty as a man in order that God’s justice could be satisfied. He ALONE could do this because, being both divine God untainted by sin and a sinless human man, He ALONE was qualified and able to endure the wrath of sin that God’s justice demanded. He ALONE, in satisfying that justice, was able to pay in full the penalty that God’s holy Justice demanded be paid.

By Jesus’ offering Himself in our place, He ALONE made possible, once and for all time, ALL that would ever need to be done to pay the penalty for sin that God’s infinite justice demanded. And because His sinless life, substitutionary death and bodily resurrection satisfied that justice, He ALONE can offer a full pardon for ANYONE who will only believe in Him – that is, anyone who will believe that Jesus is God in human flesh; believe that He died in our place to pay a penalty we could never pay; and believe that Jesus arose bodily from the tomb on the third day as the divine conqueror over Sin, Satan, and eternal Hell (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; John 3:36; John 5:24; John 6:47; Acts 16:30-31).

See, what I’m getting at is that Jesus–God the Son—did it all! He offered Himself as a ransom for “whosoever” is willing to believe in Him ALONE for salvation. He offers to all who will believe, a full pardon from the penalty of sin. For those who believe in Him alone as their Savior, to them He imputes (transfers) HIS perfect righteousness to cover the spirits of all who are tainted by the curse of sin. To ALL who are willing to believe in Jesus ALONE according to the scriptures, then to them He imputes His righteousness and gives to them the ability to become the sons of God. To all, who believe and trust in Jesus alone, to them He gives ‘eternal life’ (Romans 4:11; Romans 4:22; James 2:23; Romans 4:24).

See, in order to have that forgiveness, everyone must first ADMIT that we are sinners – utterly and completely helpless and hopeless to be, become, or do anything by our own efforts to remedy that. We must accept and admit that we can do NOTHING to make ourselves righteous enough to be in the presence of God. Neither can we do anything to KEEP our salvation once we have been granted it through our belief in what Jesus has already done. Salvation is wholly and completely accomplished and preserved by our faith ALONE, through His grace ALONE, in Jesus Christ ALONE (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; Romans 10:9-10).

In order to be saved we must:

Accept and admit the truth that we are all sinners in need of a Savior, and that we can’t do or become or have the ability in any way to become or stay saved by our own efforts which are, in God’s sight, nothing more than “filthy rags.” We must admit that we NEED a Savior.

We must believe that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. We must believe and place our trust that He willingly became the sacrifice man needed, and that His death paid in full, once and for all time, the full penalty for man’s sins.

We must believe that Jesus resurrected BODILY from the tomb on the third day and that His resurrection sealed His complete victory over Satan, Sin, Death, and Hell for all eternity, and that victory guarantees eternal life for ALL who are willing to believe upon Him alone as their Savior.

Guys, I’ve gone into such detail on this because what you do with Jesus’ offer of salvation is the single most important choice you will EVER make. In fact, your choice on this will determine the eternal destiny of your spirits which are immortal and will continue to exist – fully aware, capable of thought, feeling, sensation, memory etc. – in an eternal state, either with God in His presence forever, or in a real literal place called the Lake of Fire for eternity.

Eternity is more real than anything we think is real here. This mortal life is temporary, but the life beyond this one is eternal, and you will spend forever either in a place of utter joy in the presence of the Lord and His believers, or in Hell and ultimately the Lake of Fire in eternal torment beyond what you can imagine, with all who have rejected God’s offer of salvation, in a place that God never intended for man to be; a dreadful place that Jesus, in fact, died in man’s place to offer a way of escape to anyone who is willing to believe. Jesus paid the ransom for our sin so that anyone who is willing may escape this place of eternal damnation.

Mitch, Jack, Bobby, Trail: the fact that, as far as I know, none of you has ever bothered to think about eternity is why I’m typing all this out. I need to tell you about the rapture, the Tribulation and all that’s headed towards this world like a runaway train. But first, before I do that, I must somehow impress upon you the eternal jeopardy you are all in every minute you remain lost unbelievers. It’s my greatest desire that y’all all become believers before the rapture happens, but from where I am at this point, it doesn’t look like it’s high on y’all’s priority list so far. If one or all of you are reading this now, then it means that the rapture has happened. And I, Mama Bertie, and my Granddad are now gone, and you’ve all been left here.

Okay, now on to explaining what has happened and what’s coming. How I pray that none of y’all have been left here to find this.

Mitch stopped reading here and looked up at Trail and me, his eyes streaming with tears. Trail was weeping quietly too, as was I. It was as if everything Grandpa and Grandma had ever told me about Jesus and salvation had come flooding back at once, knocking my well-built walls of complacency and pseudo-intellectual skepticism flat like soggy cardboard. Suddenly, I knew the awful truth, and now I was going to have to consciously deal with what I’d been running from for years. Trail had already made his choice; now Mitch and I found ourselves at a crossroads of choice that would determine our eternal destiny. I looked at Mitch and prodded, “Read on. Let’s finish hearing what he has to say.” Mitch nodded, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand and began again. I sat on my bed, my whole being shaken to the core.

“Okay,” David’s letter continued, “now pay close attention, and keep this letter with you, Mitch, or whoever has it, because I’m going to give you a quick run-down of what to expect and where to find out more that you will need to know. I will be giving you tons of scriptures to read, but I need to tell you now, if any of you choose not to believe in Jesus for salvation, then none of this will make any sense. Even worse, for those who refuse to believe on Jesus as Savior, God Himself has said that HE will send a ‘strong delusion’ so that all who willingly continue to choose to reject His salvation will not be able to understand anything; and those who refuse salvation will believe ‘THE LIE.’ In other words, God is going to allow those who WANT to reject Him to become so hardened in their choice that they won’t be ABLE to tell truth from lies.

RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH:

First off, I need to make it very clear what the Church is and is not. The true Church is (was) made up of all those who believe in Jesus as their Savior according to the scriptures. I can’t stress that last part enough. It’s not just a “head knowledge” like you believe that Jesus was an actual historical figure as opposed to, say, a myth, but that you believe in all that I explained above – that Jesus is God made flesh who dwelt among us, the only begotten Son of God who alone can ‘take away the sins of the world’ – the ONLY ONE through whom the  salvation of men’s souls is made possible. See, that’s a critical distinction; those who belong to the true Church are (were) those who believed in Jesus alone for salvation, not ‘a’ Jesus made up from their own imagination, or not “Jesus AND their own good deeds,” but only those who believe in the Jesus of the Bible as defined by scripture (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

See, not everyone or every ‘church’ or even every belief system who flies (flew) under the banner of “Christian” was Christian as defined by scripture, and only those who are (were) believers according to the scriptures were part of the Church. The ‘Church Age’ began with the birth of the Church at Pentecost 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension back to Heaven (see Acts chapter 2). The Church Age ends (will end) with the rapture of the Church – the event when Jesus suddenly ‘snatches away’ all of the true Church. That event resurrects all dead believers from the time of Calvary right up to the instant of the rapture; and, in that nanosecond, changes all those still living from mortal to immortal. In that blink of an eye, ALL believers, both dead and living during the Church Age, will be changed and taken to Heaven. At the rapture, all who belong to the true Church and all babies and young children will simply vanish into thin air in the blink of an eye.

I can’t go into all of this in one letter, and y’all all have heard all this before. In addition to all the scripture references I’ve already given here, I want to let y’all know where to go to find a treasure trove of teaching information regarding salvation; especially information about the rapture and the coming Tribulation. It’s just too much info for me to put here. The website I’m going to direct you to is filled with every Biblical teaching you will need to know regarding the seven years of what the Bible calls The Tribulation; a seven-year period of time that will begin shortly after the rapture happens.

Mitch, you’ll need to find this site and mirror it or put it onto a thumb drive or whatever to make sure you can access it. I have a very strong feeling that after the rapture, this site and other true Christian websites, blogs, and YouTube channels – places where the truth according to the scriptures is told – will NOT be allowed to remain up and accessible for long. That’s why you need to find this site if at all possible, and make sure you and others can have access to it. Do this as soon as possible, Mitch, and help these other Neanderthals know how to access it too. You know that Bobby and Trail can barely turn on a computer, so you’ll have to walk these pool noodles through the post-rapture equivalent of the internet. (ha ha, boys just kidding – sorta). The name of this particular website is called (believe it or not) RAPTURE READY.

It will likely be difficult to find any Christian site, I think, after the rapture occurs because even now as I write this pre-rapture, genuine Christian/conservative content is already being scrubbed and/or purged from the internet. So, if you can, as soon as you can, locate Rapture Ready and dive in. Back everything up and secure it for as long as you are able.

From now on out, life won’t ever be anything even remotely normal, and it will get worse – much, much worse. I’m sorry guys, but you need to know the truth and prepare to deal with what’s coming. As much as I don’t want to say this, the truth is that it’s almost a certainty that most, if not all of you, will not live to see the end of these last seven years post rapture. That’s why it’s imperative that you accept Jesus as your Savior right now. All those who become believers AFTER the Church is raptured will NOT be part of the Church. The Church will be in Heaven. Those who do become believers post rapture WILL be Christians, you’ll just be Tribulation Christians or Tribulation believers.

Here are scriptures that tell about the rapture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9; Titus 2:13; John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15 :50- 58; Hebrews 9:28; Romans 7:23; Revelation 3:10.

Now I’m going to list where you can find out about the coming seven-year Tribulation. What you need to understand is that everything that happens from here on out, the main purpose will be for God to fulfill certain unconditional promises to the nation of Israel (Genesis chapters 15-17). These last seven years are for God to punish this evil world, to prepare a remnant third of Israel for the coming Kingdom of God on earth (Zechariah 13:8-9), and for God to renovate this earth and renew it to the condition the earth was in before Adam fell.

During the Kingdom Age, Jesus will have returned to the earth along with the previously Raptured Church. He then will reign as Absolute Monarch over all the earth. His kingdom will last for one thousand years. He will reign from the revived throne of King David in Jerusalem, Israel.

Israel is the key to everything (Read Daniel chapters 2, 7, 9, 11 and 12, paying particular attention to chapter 9. The latter part of chapter 9 parallels the following passages since they all relate to events that will occur during this coming seven-year Tribulation; events that pertain to national Israel: Matthew 24-25; Mark 13; Luke 21. All of these passages including Daniel 9:24-27 and Revelation 6:1-19:21 are all recounting events that will take place during the seven years of the Tribulation).

I’ve got to bring this in for a landing. I could literally fill a volume of books on all you need to know, but let me sum it up this way:

Watch for the sudden vanishing of millions, maybe even a billion people worldwide, including all babies and children who are too young to understand sin, eternity, and the eternal consequences of sin. When this happens, IT WILL BE THE RAPTURE. DO NOT believe whatever LIE is told to you TO try to explain away the vanishing. It WON’T have been aliens, or a leap in human evolution. IT WON’T have been an accident with CERN, or the Mandela Effect, or ‘mother earth’ – Gaia – cleansing itself, and it WON’T have been an accident, or a super-secret weapon or any number of variants of the LIE that Satan will put forth to try to explain away the rapture. Don’t believe ANYTHING or ANYONE who says anything other than what scripture tells you. This ‘event’ will have been the fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy of the rapture of the Church. Anything else will be a variation on the Lie of Satan.

Watch for the complete and utter overnight destruction of Damascus, Syria (Isaiah 17:1).

Look for a likely nuclear event to occur where the Iranian nuclear plant is located in Bushehr. Elam is the ancient name of that area where Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant is located (Jeremiah 49).

Pay close attention because, very soon, most likely after the rapture occurs, there will be an invasion of Israel from the Golan Heights. This invasion will be led by Russia, Turkey, Iran, Libya and others. You can read about this invasion in Ezekiel chapters 38-39. These same countries will be called by their ancient names of Magog, Meshech, Tubal, and Persia. This coalition will invade Israel but God Himself will defeat them.

After this defeat, Israel will make a covenant with a man who will APPEAR to be a great peacemaker. His covenant will allow Israel to rebuild her Temple on its ancient site. Beware of this man, whomever he will be; in reality, he will be the Antichrist.

Okay, I’ve got to stop here, although there’s so much more you need to know, but this should help get you going in the right direction.

What I want y’all to do ASAP, should you still be here, is to go by my house. Take my bike, my jeep, my clothes (Bobby, you and I are about the same size), get all my food and my guns. Mitch, you know where they are. Take them all. Also, grab my Bible and the following books from my bookshelf: AN URGENT CALL TO A SERIOUS FAITH by Dave Hunt, and the 4-5 books I have by Dr Chuck Missler. Take any others you might find too, but DON’T forget the Bible.

Bobby, I strongly suggest that all y’all stay up on Yellow Top as much as possible. The towns, even Iverson and Norrisville, are going to become dangerous. Y’all can hunt, fish, and live off the land for a while; but I have to tell you, this is only temporary safety at best, and even that won’t last long. I want y’all to read Revelation chapters 6–11 to start with. Be sure you understand that everything that takes place in these chapters all the way up to what is called the second of three ‘woes’ in chapter 11 – ALL of these things will happen during the FIRST three- and one-half years. Watch for the man who will be the Antichrist. Watch for God’s two witnesses who will show up at the Temple almost immediately, and watch for any Jewish young men whom you may (or you may not) meet. If you find any believers or any believing Jews (not too many in Norrisville, but there might be), treat them well. Give your lives for them if necessary. Hide the weapons and especially hide and protect the Bibles and the RR site for as long as possible.

How I pray with all my heart that y’all come to belief now. How I pray that none of you will be here to find this letter; but if you are, please, I plead with you to believe in Jesus alone for salvation just as soon as you read this and realize what has happened. Don’t risk being eternally deceived by your own stubbornness in refusing to accept the truth. If the rapture occurs before y’all become believers, I pray with all my heart that you will believe as soon as possible after we in the Church will have gone. Please don’t wait.

Love,

David”

For a moment, all three of us sat there stunned. I felt like my heart was hammering outta my chest. Mitch looked about three shades paler than usual. Only Trail seemed calm, though I knew he was anxious about me and Mitch – Harp to, wherever he was.

Mitch spoke first before I could begin: “I can’t even begin to deny the truth of what David has written, or what we’ve seen, or, Trail what you said about Mama B. I’m sorry I yelled at you. It wasn’t you I was mad at; it was myself because I knew you were telling the truth and I was…scared and ashamed; and what did David call it once, ‘under conviction’ by the Holy Spirit? Yeah, I felt ‘convicted’ alright. In fact, I’ve not been able to shake that conviction since I found my Mom and Dad gone.

“Whenever David last tried to talk to me about salvation, oh…I guess around Christmas last year, I knew God was dealing with my heart then, but I didn’t want to hear it or deal with it. If I had, I’d be with Dave and Mom and Dad right now; with Laurie and James and the kids too. Just think, I’ve always been one last heartbeat and one last breath away from Hell all this time. Trail, that’s why I yelled at you, because Mama B always said the same things Dave did. I don’t know about you, Bobby, but I’m done running. I’m done rationalizing, and I’m done procrastinating. I don’t know how to pray, so I’m just going to do the best I can.” Mitch began to pray with tears streaming down his face.

“God, I believe everything David and Mama B told me. I know I’m a sinner. I’m not the good guy I always thought I was. I’m lost and I know it, but if Your word says that what we have to do is believe and put our trust in Your sacrifice on our behalf, then Jesus, I believe. Please save me. If I have to give my life, worthless as it has been so far, then I’m willing to do that; just please save me and take my spirit to live with you when I die. I do believe you are God. I know I need a Savior. I believe you died for me – for me, and that You arose from the dead and are alive forever more. Thank You, my Lord.”

Mitch’s entire countenance changed. Even in the diminished light of the flashlight, I could see the change. He was still weeping, but his race radiated a peace and a joy that I certainly didn’t have – yet. Before either of them could say another word, I too bowed my head and, finally at last, knew that what my two best friends left here and the one in Heaven had now was what I wanted as well, more than anything in this life. Before God and my brothers, I admitted out loud, with absolutely no embarrassment or fear, that I too am a sinner in need of a Savior. I don’t know what all I did say outside of that truth – the truth that I too knew I was lost, that I believe that Jesus died, rose again and is the living God who died for me. All I know is that floodtide of memories hit me like a loaded Mack truck, and for the first time ever, I understood, and believed. 

We all three sat there huddled together, praying unashamedly and without embarrassment. Finally, Trail, wiping his tear-streaming eyes, said, “Boys we’ve got a lot of riding to do tomorrow. We better get some shut-eye. But you know what? We started this day out thinking we were brothers, but we’re ending it knowing that we are brothers for eternity. We’re part of God’s family now; and even though we’re never going to be part of the Church like Dave and Mama and all the others already gone home are, still, we’re part of God’s family, and we’ll be with them all in seven-years’ time…max, if not before. ‘Oh, Lord Jesus,’ implored Trail, as he turned off the flashlight by which we had read David’s letter, “if they don’t already know it, will you let Mama and David know we’re all three part of the family now, and we’ll be seeing them soon? Thank you, Lord. Amen.”

We all three lay down in beds that were not our own, in a place that was not our homes, in a world that had become dark and uncertain. Still, we three lay at peace, closer than ever in a way we’ve never been before. We didn’t yet know much about what we would soon be facing, but we closed our eyes that night knowing that from here on out, whatever surprises or horrors we would face, we knew that good or bad, easy or hard, live or die, we now belonged to God. We were now Tribulation Brothers.

As it turned out, the next day held two big surprises, both of which would impact us all – especially me.

 

Chapter 5

Same journal entry: Friday, October 25 – recollections of Terrell Tyler, Mitchell Graham and Bobby Thorpe

TRAIL’S STORY

“Let me go back,” Trail said, “to late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning.

“I had just gotten off shift at midnight. I was tired, but not overly so. Even though I kept telling her not to, Mama most always waited up for me when I worked the three-to-twelve shifts. She liked making me something to eat when I’d get off and then sit with me, hearing about my day while I ate. So, Wednesday night I got home around 12:30-12:40 or so, and Mama was up just as I figured she’d be,” Trail said, his lead lowered, a small smile playing around his mouth.

“She decided that I looked hungry,” laughed Trail. Mitch and I both smiled too because that’s exactly what Mama B would say about all of us whenever we’d come over. “You boys look hungry! Git on in here an’ let me scrounge sumpin up,” she’d say as she waded into the kitchen, shooing us out. Mama Bertie’s ‘scrounged up’ meals were more like full spreads, complete with either hot homemade biscuits or fresh-baked cornbread baked in her old cast-iron skillet.

“Anyway,” Trail continued, “it hadn’t been too rough a day. We weren’t too busy. We had an addict who’d OD’d in downtown Iverson. He was lying on the sidewalk almost in front of your dad’s old bank, Bobby. It could have been bad if we’d gotten there a minute or two later. As it was, he was barely breathing and his vitals were just about non-existent. But we gave him a shot of Narcan and he responded immediately. Brought him right around. Amazing stuff, Narcan. Dan Turner from Iverson PD was there to escort him to jail after the guy refused any further medical aid.

“The only other incident that happened that afternoon was a rear-ender at the 4-way intersection of Ridgeland Road and Mountain Laurel Road. A young mother with three little ones was rear-ended while she was stopped and waiting for her turn to go through the intersection.

“Tommy Anderson worked that wreck. He called us out to check the mom over since she was kinda out of it at first and said she felt sick after smacking her head into the steering wheel. Tommy said it looked like maybe her seat belt didn’t lock on impact, but of course he couldn’t be sure about that; he said they were all belted in when he got there, and the mother seemed like she wasn’t thinking straight for the first minute or so. Frank and I got the call and checked her and the kids out. I thought the mom might be slightly concussed, so I assessed her and decided she needed to be checked out at the ER.

“The kids seemed to be fine. They were sweet as could be, but shook up by the hit and worried about their mama, naturally. The older two were twins – a boy and girl, looked to be about 6 or 7, and the youngest was a little boy about 3 or 4. I looked them over good, but I was confident that they were alright. It was the mom I was concerned about, but I decided that all four of them should be checked out. The driver of the other car said he was fine and refused for us to check him over. Tommy told me it appeared that the guy was uninsured. Wonderful. What a mess this is going to be for her, I thought.

“The kids were naturally scared and worried about their mom. All three were crying as we loaded her into the ambulance, but Tommy’s really good with scared kids. He told them that there wasn’t room in the ambulance for them to ride with her, but that they could ride in his patrol car. He told them he’d follow us all the way to the hospital where they could see their mom, just as soon as he moved the van to the side of the road and set some traffic cones around. They began to settle down a bit and were even grinning when Tommy told them they could each hit the siren for just a second before they left. That went a long way towards calming them down. Then he went back to the trunk of his car and got each one of them a small stuffed animal to hold. He keeps a bag of those in the trunk for times like this when scared, injured, or traumatized kids need something comforting to hold on to.

“So Frank and I got the mother loaded into the ambulance and calmed her down. I told her that her little ones were fine but that we’d have the docs at the ER check them over too just to be sure. She thanked me, and as Frank turned on the lights and pulled out, I heard her praying softly. She was thanking her “Heavenly Father” for keeping them all safe.

“We headed out – lights but no siren, toward Iverson Baptist Hospital as Tommy followed us in his squad car with the little ones. After we got them all deposited at Iverson Baptist, as we were leaving, I glanced back and saw Tommy and the mother of the kids, both of them with heads bowed and saying a short prayer together as she thanked God and Tommy for taking care of her babies. I knew Tommy needed to be headed back to the accident site to wait for the wrecker. He’d already put out traffic cones, so I knew he’d have to hurry back. Still he took the time to say a quick prayer with that mother. That’s Tommy. The mother thanked me too before I left, very appreciatively, but I didn’t offer to pray with her. I smiled because I knew Tommy was a Christian, and apparently, she was too. Both shared a bond even though they’d never met before.

“I’ve been thinking about that last call a lot. I’m certain that that mother, her kids, and Tommy aren’t here anymore either. Yep, I’d bet the farm, if I had one, that they’ve all gone missing too,” Trail said with a sad smile.

“What do you me… ” I interrupted, but Trail held up his hand to silence me.

“Let me get there my own way, Bobby. It all ties together, but let me get there on my own.”

I was agitated and more than a bit irritated with Trail. I thought he was going around the world to get to the point about what happened to Mama B. I didn’t want to hear about people I didn’t know, and honestly, his seeming nonchalance about Mama’s whereabouts was really getting under my skin. Still, I also knew that Trail loved his mother more than anyone else in the world. He would have been tearing this town apart if he thought somebody had taken her or if he’d thought she had wandered off; so all I could do was try to be patient and see where all this was going, although I sure wished he’d get from point A to point B in a straight line. “Okay,” I said; “go on.”

“Anyway,” Trail resumed, “those two events were the only calls we had Wednesday afternoon, so when I got home after midnight, I wasn’t too tired. As I said, Mama was up and wanted to fix me a ‘little sumpin’ to eat, so she mixed up a pan of biscuits, scrambled me some eggs, and fried me up a few rashers of bacon and brewed a fresh pot of decaf. As I ate, she cleaned up the pans, bowls, and wiped down the bread board, and then she sat down at the table to talk with me while I ate. I was telling her just what I told you about the mother and the children, and about how Tommy Anderson and the mom had been praying together and talking about God and grace and such. I told her that Tommy was going to get in trouble one day for doing that.

“She told me, “Terry, Tommy and that mother and her children are more of a family than even you an’ me are. Seems clear to me they’re all part of God’s family. In fact, that sweet little mother and her babies is family with me too. I wish and pray with all my heart that you would become part of that family too, son. It’s what my heart longs for most in all the world,” she said, reaching out and taking my hand.

“Mama, please don’t start up about that believing in Jesus stuff again. I know it means a lot to you, and one day I probably will, but not tonight. Now that you’ve fed me and taken such good care of me, I’m tired and I just want to get to bed. Thank you for the biscuits and eggs. I’m going to hit the sack,” I told her, getting up to put my plate and stuff in the sink. “Don’t worry about cleaning up. I’ll wash up the rest of the stuff and put it away, Mama.” I said, “You go on to bed – and thank you. I love you, Mama.”

She came around the table and hugged me, looking me full on, and said, “Terry, you’re my baby, the only child God gave me, and I love you with everthin’ that’s in me. But son, you can’t keep puttin’ off makin’ your heart right with God. Times runnin’ out, baby. I’ve told you all your life about eternity an’ about how important salvation is.

“Son, at any moment we can draw our last breath. At any moment our hearts can beat for that final time. You, of all people, understand how fragile the ties are that bind us to this life. After that last breath is drawn and that last heartbeat stops, it’s too late then to do what you should have done when you could. After death, whatever choice you made in life regarding God’s offer of salvation is set for all eternity. And then there’s the rapture. Son, how I wish with all that’s in me that you’d believe and be saved right now. Time’s running out, Terry; I feel that in my very bones. Beyond that, God’s word tells us about how things are gon’ be in the times leadin’ up to Jesus comin’ back to git His bride – all those who believe in Him and who are part of the family of God – like me, and like Tommy, and like that precious little mother and her babies.

“Son, only those who have been saved can be part of God’s family, and even though you’re my son, my flesh and blood son that I gave birth to, those other people – all believers in Jesus, are part of a family that you ain’t part of because you don’t think you need salvation.

“Terry, one reason I waited up tonight was because I felt like I needed to tell you somethin’. It’s been layin’ hard on my heart like a stone for a long time, but the weight’s been ‘specially heavy today. What you need to understand, Terry, is this: time’s runnin’ out! Jesus is comin’ soon, son. I don’t know when, but I do know it’s soon. I don’t want you to be left behind when He comes to git His family – what the Bible calls His body – His bride. I want all my boys – you, and Bobby and Mitch and Jack – to get saved now. Now, Davy, I don’t worry ’bout him. He’s already in the family of God. He’s ready for the rapture or for death if it should come for him first, praise God. But I want you and all my boys to be ready too so’s y’all can all go with me when Jesus comes callin’ for us – if the rapture happens before I die.

“Will you let me tell you one more time about how to be saved? Please, son? I know you’re tired and all, so I won’t take long; I promise. Besides, you already know what to do; you just don’t think you need to. That scares me more’n anything. Please, son?”

“Bobby, Mitch,” Trail said, huge tears making glistening twin tracks that slid down his dark brown face, “those words will haunt me till the day I die, even though I’m 1000% positive now that I’ll be seeing Mama again soon. But, oh, if I’d only listened before! I glanced at the clock as Mama hugged me and kissed my cheek. I noticed that it was 2:47 AM.

“I kissed her cheek and hugged her, telling her we’d talk tomorrow, buying myself some more time, I thought, like a dang fool. As it turns out, my time, at least my chance to go with her, was up. See y’all, as I was hugging her and glancing at the clock, my time to be ready to go with her – with all the believers as she always called the real Christians – finally ran out. At 2:47 AM Thursday, October 3rd, as I was hugging my Mama goodnight, she just vanished right outta my arms. One second she was there hugging me, and the next second, quicker than I could blink, she was gone. Just gone. Right outta my arms.”

CHAPTER 6

I sat there stunned. I looked over at Mitch who had obviously already heard this. Still, Mitch’s face was pale, and he too looked haunted. I wondered if my own face looked the same as his. Mitch didn’t say anything, and neither did I. I looked back at Trail to see what he’d say next. I wasn’t sure what I thought or what I believed, but long-forgotten memories were beginning to stir in the dark corners of my mind, memories that I thought I had neatly buried away because they made me uncomfortable. I thought I’d buried these troubling thoughts when I buried Grandma and Grandpa; but, dang, here they were again, crawling out of some dark cobwebby corners in the attic of my mind, stirring back to life – resurrected, you might say, from the grave of my past…

“Bobby, son, I want to warn you about what’s coming. Unless you get saved, son, bad – evil times are comin’, an’ ain’t none of us guaranteed the next five minutes of life anyway. Life is uncertain, but death for most of us and eternity for all of us are sure things. There’s this life, an’ then there’s eternity. Bobby, there ain’t no such thing as a good person. We’re all vile and guilty sinners next to God’s holiness. Even though most of us do good things and try to be good, being good ain’t the same thing as being righteous. We’re still sinners who need a Savior.

“See, against God’s perfect holiness, the very best we can give looks like filthy rags next to God’s righteousness. Mankind is infected with sin. That’s why all men need a Savior. You need to be considerin’ eternity son, an’ iff’n the rapture happens while yo’re still livin’, then if you ain’t saved afore it happens, then, son, what’s comin’ will be worse than you can ever imagine. Please, Bobby, hark to what I’m tellin’ ya. I love ya an I want ta reach you like I wadn’t able ta do with yer dad.” 

More memories of Grandpa’s Bible-reading and little talks we’d have while fishing, or doing chores, or Grandma’s gentle instructions began to awaken, filling my conscious mind with conversations long buried but apparently not really forgotten; conversations that made me uncomfortable then, and remembering them now, were making me feel even more uncomfortable – and what? Guilty? I mentally shook my head, trying to shake off those old memories like a dog shakes water off his back. I came back to the present, waiting for Trail to finish.

“I know Mama knows now that I’ll be joining her one day soon,” Trail said, smiling and crying at the same time. “But y’all, it tears my heart out that the last words Mama heard me say was putting her off yet again and telling her ‘We’ll talk tomorrow, Mama,’ and me knowing that I would almost certainly try to arrange to be too busy to have that little talk with her; knowing in my heart that I’d try to avoid sitting down with her to listen to her pour out her heart about her worry over her only son. But see, when tomorrow came, Mama was safe in Heaven, and I was left here – just like y’all are left here.

“I’m telling you, I know where Mama is. I know who from around here is most likely with her. I feel sure that little family in the fender-bender is with her as is Tommy Anderson and David, and well, likely a whole lot more people from town. They’re the ones who are safe now. It’s us – those of us who’ve been left here that need to worry.

“See, I’ve been reading Mama’s old Bible. She had marked certain passages in the flyleaf of both covers. In the front, she listed a heading called SALVATION. Under that heading, she’d listed all the verses about salvation. Then she made another heading she titled THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH. Under that heading, she wrote down the passages pertaining to what she called the rapture. Then she made one last list: AFTER THE RAPTURE – THE TRIBULATION. Beneath that heading, she listed passages pertaining to the nation of Israel, and to a seven-year time period she called The Tribulation. I’ve learned since that this seven-year time period goes by other names as well in scripture, but I’ll tell y’all about that later.

“Y’all need to listen up and don’t continue to be the fools we’ve all been up to now. I need to tell y’all what I’ve learned so far. There’s still a lot I don’t know, but I’m going to learn, and y’all better too because if what I’m learning about is true, and obviously it is – the Bible’s sure been right about the vanishing of true believers – then we are about to enter a time unlike any that’s ever been in history. Guys, what’s coming, according to the Bible, is going to be worse than anything we can even imagine.

“Ever since Thursday morning, I’ve been holed up here reading every single verse Mama left in the flyleaf of her Bible. In fact, I’ve read even more. I’ve been reading and cross-referencing stuff and marking passages on my own. I finally did what I should have done long ago: I believed and accepted that I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I’m part of God’s family now, but I missed my chance to be part of His Church. If I hadn’t been so stubborn and stupid, I coulda been, and then I’d have gone with Mama when Jesus called her up,” Trail sad sadly.

All this religious talk was making me extremely uncomfortable. I could tell Mitch was feeling the same way, but we didn’t butt in. We let Trail continue to talk.

“Early this morning just after sun-up, Mitch showed up, and I told him just what I’ve told you,” Trail resumed. “He said he wanted to wait to tell me his story, so I’ve not heard what he has to say yet. And that’s it for me,” Trail said quietly, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Okay Mitch-man, whenever you are ready. You too, Bobby.”

MITCH’S STORY

Before Mitch began, I told him and Trail about meeting Clyde at Nan’s and his telling me to ride through town. As I told them what I’d found, Trail’s head was bobbing up and down like one of those bobble- head things some people stick on the dashboards of their cars. Mitch was very quiet; and as I was telling him about all the seemingly empty houses, he looked more and more shaken. I told them that Clyde wanted me to ride back into town and meet him at Mike’s Store when I got finished with my exploration of the town. By now it was already edging close to 2 in the afternoon, judging by the sun. I asked the guys if they wanted to ride into town with me. I already knew I wasn’t going to make it back up the mountain today, but I wasn’t worried because I knew I could crash with either Mitch or Trail.

“Trail, I know you have that bike with the big tires on it,” I said grinning. “Is it in good shape?” I asked him. Trail is a big guy who needs a big bike. Earlier this summer we finally talked him into getting a good, reliable bike big enough to hold his 6’3″ frame and his weight so we could all bike some of the trails on my land or on the national forestry land that abuts my ten acres. He found a good one at a sporting goods store in Asheville. It’s has an extra-sturdy frame with extra-big tires made to carry a 300 lb. person. It cost him a good chunk of change, but, man, it’s a beauty. I, of course, have my old 10-speed which looks like a dog but is still in really good shape. Mitch’s bike was about done for, so I wasn’t sure his’d be able to make the trek into town. I said as much to Mitch.

“Mine’s in good running order,” Trail said.

“Well, my old Schwinn won’t make the trip, not even around town,” said Mitch, “but I’ve got an idea. My bike will get me to David’s house – I think, if y’all don’t go too fast. I want to go by there anyway just to make sure he’s not there, even though I’m nearly positive he’s not after what you’ve both said. Trail, I don’t know what to think about what you’ve told us, but let me just say that I’m almost positive Mom and Dad are gone too, although what that means and what the explanation for all of this is, I’m not ready to say. IF all of this is somehow related to religion…”

“Not religion, Mitch, Christianity – the Bible,” interjected Trail, seriously.

“Whatever, Trail,” replied Mitch, a trifle impatiently. “That’s one of the things we need to determine – what are the factors that link this event? Who exactly are among the missing, and what is the common denominator for those who were and weren’t taken? What about that EMP? Also, I want to know about the children.”

“Trail, you mentioned children too; why?” I asked. “What makes you think the children are among the missing? What ages? Why children? What about teenagers?” I was asking questions rapidly. I hadn’t noticed that the town seemed to be devoid of children as well. I was beginning to realize that I’d make a lousy detective.

“I don’t know for sure,” said Mitch. “But the town seems to be empty of them – at least Briarwood is, and there are several families on my street alone who have kids. I’ve seen several sets of parents going door to door asking if anyone has seen their kids – and some houses where I know there are kids, everyone is missing. It’s kinda like a patchwork quilt.” Mitch’s brows were deeply furrowed in puzzlement. “IF there’s a connection to what all these people believed or to the Bible, or church or something, then that’s something we need to establish, if possible.

“You both know my parents didn’t go to Calvary Baptist anymore. They went to that new community church; what’s it called?” asked Mitch, looking at Trail and me.

“New Hope Community Church,” replied Trail.

“Yes, that’s it. They weren’t entirely thrilled there, but they went. I don’t think they wanted to go to the – what did you call it, Bobby – Church of the Almost Dead?” Mitch asked, grinning. I nodded.

“Anyway, they’d been visiting this new one for about a year since the only other alternative was a tiny Kingdom Hall where Norrisville’s tiny population of Jehovah’s Witnesses gather. There couldn’t be more than 75 of them, if that many.

“Bobby, did you ride by the other two churches – New Hope and the Kingdom Hall to see if either of them were open?” asked Mitch.

“No, I didn’t; sorry. After finding the Church of the Almost Dead, well, dead so to speak, it spooked me so bad all I wanted to do was find y’all and talk to Mama,” I replied to Mitch.

“That’s okay. We can ride by both on our way into town. I don’t think the KH has services until the evenings anyway, and we’ll see what, if anything, is going on at New Hope. Probably the KH won’t be meeting with no power on. But first I want to go by David’s. My bike will go that far, I think. And if David’s not there, as both of us think he won’t be,” Mitch said, turning to Trail, “then I’ll grab his mountain bike and ride into town with you both.”

“Guys, David might be there, or he might be coming back. Maybe he’s checking out the town on foot, or maybe he’s on his bike and we’ve just not seen him,” I said.

“No, he’s not Bobby. I have a key to his place. I keep an eye on things for him when he’s up in the hills at the ranger station working or out hiking or whatever. I haven’t been by there yet, but I know he was home Wednesday night because I talked to him around 10 PM. He was going to be off from Thursday through the rest of the weekend. He said he was planning to work around in his yard Thursday and Friday raking leaves and cleaning gutters on the house and such, then meet up with us all at the Mellow Onion Friday evening for your birthday. Then he said he was planning on going into Asheville on Saturday. Wednesday night when I talked to him, he said he was already headed to bed since he’d had a long day. He said he was beat and he’d see us all at the Mellow O on Friday. If David was here, he’d have already been by either my house or Trail’s,” said Mitch.

“Anyway, Friday morning after the power still hadn’t come back on, and my car still wouldn’t start, I walked over to Mom and Dad’s to check on them. I found just what you did, Bobby. Their car was in the driveway, but their curtains were drawn, doors locked, with the place looking deserted. I went inside and everything looked normal. The TV remote was by Dad’s chair; the house was neat. The only odd thing was that their bed was rumpled like they had been asleep, but there was no sign of them anywhere. This was odd, the bed I mean, because Mom always made their bed. It was sorta a family joke,” Mitch said with a smile. “I’d throw mine together in a slap-dash way when I was a teenager living at home, but she always made their bed neatly. She’d no more go out without her bed made than she’d go out without her shoes on,” said Mitch, as his smile faded.

“Also, she’d never leave town without her or Dad trying to get in touch with me or my sister Laurie. If they’d left, she’d have left a note or something. And, obviously, I can’t call Laurie either. I’d sure like to know what’s going on in South Carolina where she and James are,” said Mitch, pensively. “I didn’t go by David’s; I just hung around between home and Mom’s, waiting to see if they came home. Finally, I just came here.”

“Mitch,” Trail asked, “Laurie and James, they were believers, weren’t they?”

“Geeze, Trail, I don’t know!” shouted Mitch, in an uncharacteristically angry outburst. Mitch is one of the most laid-back people I know, but even his equilibrium, I saw, has been knocked off kilter by all this.

“Calm down, buddy,” said Trail, soothingly; “I’m just trying to piece things together.”

“Sorry, Trail. I know you are – we all are. And I know that you think you’ve got this all figured out, but I’m just not sure myself, okay? Look, if what you think and believe makes you feel better – gives you some comfort – then that’s great. I’m just not there with the whole rapture thing, okay? There could be another explanation, you know,” said Mitch, leaning forward and looking intently at Trail.

“Mitch, I’m telling you, Mama DISAPPEARED! I was holding her and she just vanished!” Trail said, his voice beginning to rise as he jumped up from his chair and towered over both of us. He wasn’t angry yet, but he was getting there. I felt that sense of unreality slamming into me again like a big ocean wave that you don’t see coming; one that comes out of nowhere and knocks you flat. If two of the most laid-back people I knew were strung this tight, then I knew things were going to get a whole lot worse if we didn’t find out what’s going on soon.

“Look,” I said, trying to placate both of them; “let’s just take one thing at a time, okay? First, let’s ride over to David’s and see what we find. If he’s not there and if his place is deserted and still locked up like all the other places are, then we’ll take his bike, leave him a note telling him where we’re going, and then head on over to Mike’s to see what Clyde and Big Mike have to say. We’ll grab some stuff to make pb&js or whatever we can find to take with us. Clyde said Mike would feed us and maybe tell us what’s going on, or at least as much as they know. I know Clyde already knew that people – a lot of people in N’ville – have gone missing. That’s what he wanted me to find out on my own, and he was right. I wouldn’t have believed him; wouldn’t have believed the…magnitude…the number of those who are gone if I hadn’t seen it for myself. So let’s load up some grub, go check on David, and then head into town to see what Clyde and Big Mike have to say. We’ll reserve judgment until we get more facts. Agreed?” I asked, looking at both my friends.

“Yeah; Okay,” they both replied.

Trail went into the kitchen and came back out after about 10 minutes with four plastic grocery bags crammed full of stuff. In one were two loaves of bread, an unopened jar of peanut butter and another already opened jar of Skippy still three quarters full. In a second bag, he had three jars of jelly – a jar each of store-bought peach and grape jelly – a pack of paper plates, plastic forks, napkins, and a quart of Mama’s home-canned apple butter. In the third grocery bag, he had three cans of SpaghettiOs, two cans of baked beans, and a couple of cans of canned peaches – the giant-sized ones. The last bag had a plastic tub full of homemade peanut butter cookies, a box of those Little Debbie oatmeal cream-filled cookies, a box of vanilla wafers and about three fourths of a huge pound cake that Mama had baked that Wednesday morning. Mitch and I both looked at those bulging blue plastic bags for a minute, wide-eyed, and then we both burst out laughing. We couldn’t help it.

“Dang, Trail, you’re gonna blow out the tires even on that tractor-size bike of yours if it has to carry you and that laundry-bag-sized pile of food!” Mitch laughed.

“Bobby,” laughed Mitch, “did big Mike tell us to move in with him? Cause that’s the only reason I can think of for Trail to be hauling this load all the way into town!”

“Boys, you each carry a bag, and I’ll carry two. We can’t go in empty-handed, so we are going loaded for bear,” replied Trail, grinning like a hyena.

“You’ve got enough there to FEED a bear!” I said. “Trail, you big dummy; you’d better triple-bag that stuff or it’s not going to hold, and there’ll be busted glass and canned beans all the way into town. You better wrap those glass jars in dish towels or something too,” I told him, laughing.

“Oh yeah, I didn’t think about that,” said Trail, looking around for a better solution. “I know,” he said, snapping his fingers. Coming back a few minutes later, he had with him two gym bags and another bag. Ooooh, heck no, I thought, as I started laughing even harder. This last bag was a huge two-handled bag made out of some quilted material. It looked for all the world to me like what I’d imagine a carpet bag might look, except this one was uglier than sin, as Grandma used to say when something was ugly beyond description. This thing had a bright orange background with these huge, gaudy, pink, yellow and orangish-red flowers all over it. It was, without a doubt, the ugliest thing I have ever seen.

“What is that thing?” I wheezed out, laughing so hard I was crying.

“This, my good buddy, is what you are going to be carrying your part of our provisions in,” winked Trail as he tossed that big ugly thing at me. “Mitch and me get the gym bags,” he said, grinning wickedly.

“Why do I get this butt-ugly thing?” I cried, laughing so hard I could barely stand up. “Besides, Trail, this thing stinks! What is that smell? It’s all over the bag!” I said, trying to throw the ugly thing back.

“This was Mama’s ‘overnightin’ bag as she called it, and the smell is a little bit of old perfume that got spilled in it. A glass bottle cracked and spilled a little inside,” replied Trail, having to hold back his laughter.

“Mama NEVER smelled like this!” I said, laughing. “THIS smells like dead cow patties.”

“Naw, no cow patties, dead or alive. Just some old spilled perfume,” Trail said, plopping that cavernous, stinking thing at my feet.

“Okay, it smells like dead cow patties covered in moldy perfume; now get me a real bag,” I said, laughing hard, but having a sinking suspicion that this wasn’t going to end well for me. I looked over at Mitch for help, but that traitor had fallen back on the couch with his head thrown back, laughing hard, his face red. He was incapable of speech. He just sat there pointing at me.

“No, no, you were right, my quick-thinking friend. Trying to use those grocery bags would have been a disaster. So, here’s the solution: Mitch, you take this bag. Fill it up with the bread and jelly and paper goods and stuff. Here’s some towels; Genius over there was right; we need to wrap them so they don’t break. I’ll take the bigger of these two fine, manly looking bags, and I’ll fill it with all the good STUFF. YOU, my far-sighted good buddy,” Trail said, wickedly shoving that ugly, stinking, flower-covered bag into my hands,” YOU, Bobster, take the canned goods. We can’t have the bread and cookies and stuff smelling like perfumed dead-cow dung, so get to packing boys,” Trail said, smiling, as Mitch just continued to point, his face getting redder.

“Traitors,” I grumbled, as I began packing that monstrosity with all the canned goods I had, plus a few more Trail scrounged up from somewhere.

“Green beans?” I asked, looking at Trail, open-mouthed. “Four cans of green beans? French–cut green beans, two ton-sized cans of peaches, and Little Debbie cakes – for real, Trail?” I said, now laughing so hard I tripped over that dang bag, nearly landing on top of Mitch, who was sliding off the couch he was laughing so hard. Mitch and Trail were high-fiving each other as they zipped their normal-looking bags. I packed that ugly, odiferous bag (it smelled worse than cow patties; I decided it smelled like rancid cow patties) and zipped it shut. It held everything. It could have also held the dead dog it smelled like; it still stank.

I was laughing so hard my eyes were watering; and, oh, did that laugh feel good – feel normal. But as we were to soon learn, normal was about to acquire a whole new meaning.