Kennedy Stern Christian Suspense Box Set (Books 1-3)

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

“THIS BETTER NOT BE one of your silly tricks to keep me away from my football game.”

Kennedy heard Carl’s good-natured voice reverberate through the halls a few seconds before he entered Nick’s office.

“Kennedy! So you did come!” He spread his arms out for a hug and then stopped. “Something happened.” He looked to Nick. “Is this the big problem that couldn’t wait?” He frowned even though his voice hadn’t lost its kindly tone.

Nick nodded. “She says that ...”

“The girl call back again?” Carl interrupted.

Once they found a way to help Rose, Kennedy figured she could go a whole year without talking about the past few days and that still wouldn’t be long enough. “She said her uncle found out, listened in to our last call or something. Said he’s already scheduled her an abortion.” She handed Carl the phone, half hoping to hear Brahms’ Lullaby, half hoping to never see it again.

Wrinkles materialized on Carl’s face the same way splotches popped up on Kennedy’s skin when she got nervous.

“Wait until you hear the weirdest part,” Nick said.

Kennedy took a deep breath. “She didn’t call from a blocked number this time. We checked the ID. She was calling from here.”

A heavy silence billowed up like a cloud of gas over a lab beaker. Carl heaved a massive sigh. “How long ago was that call?”

“About half an hour.” Kennedy had been staring at the clock, counting down the seconds since Rose hung up.

“Think she’s still here?”

Nick shrugged. “She could be anywhere.”

“There’s nobody named Rose in youth group, is there?” Carl asked.

Nick shook his head.

“But she might have made up a name,” Carl mused. He made Kennedy describe both phone calls in as much detail as she could muster up. Maybe Nick could recognize Rose. After a sophisticated version of the guessing game, minus the good humor and laughter, they still hadn’t made any progress.

“Did you find out anything else about her family?” Carl asked. “Something that might make them stick out from anyone else in the church?”

“She mentioned her uncle, and she mentioned her dad. That’s all.” Kennedy’s stomach was churning.

“No brothers or sisters?” Nick prompted.

Kennedy’s contacts were scratching at her eyes again. “I told you everything she told me,” she huffed.

Carl stood up. “Well, you’ve certainly gone above and beyond the call of duty.” He placed a strong hand on her shoulder. The gesture reminded her of her father, and she wished she could shut her eyes and click her heels together and end up back in Yanji. She could postpone college for a year, or maybe take classes online.

“Well, how about I’ll drop you back off at school. Nick and I will keep thinking. We’ll find a way to check who was in the junior high Sunday school today, things like that.”

“It’ll be a lot easier finding her now that we know what church she goes to,” Nick added.

“But I do want to be discreet about it all,” Carl muttered to Nick, “what with the timing and everything.”

“Of course.”

Carl gave Kennedy’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze. “Cheer up. Let me drive you back to campus.”

They slipped out of the office. “I got my car parked around the corner.” Carl beeped the button on his automatic keys.

“What about Sandy?” Kennedy asked. “I didn’t see her all morning.”

“She left right after the service ended. Went to drop off a few things at the center, do a little planning for the dinner.”

Kennedy slipped into the passenger seat of Carl’s maroon Honda. He groaned as he plopped down next to her. “I’m getting too old for this,” he mumbled. “Now where are those keys? I just had them.”

She smiled to herself while she watched him turn his pockets inside out one by one, but all she really wanted to do was get back to her dorm and grab some lunch. She had to meet Reuben in an hour to finish going over their lab report. If they started right away, she might finish in time to get a decent chunk of her Russian lit reading done before crashing for the night. In addition to her calculus test, she had papers due in both her literature classes next week. When Carl’s air conditioning blew in her face, she blinked her eyes and made a mental note to call her dad tonight about those contacts.

Carl finally found his keys under his leg as a phone beeped. Kennedy automatically opened her backpack before she remembered her cell wasn’t there. “That’s not me,” she told Carl. “Did someone just text you?”

He fumbled for another minute before pulling out his thick cell phone. He squinted over his glasses. “Uh-oh.” He was already dialing before Kennedy could ask what was wrong.

“Hi, babe. Are you ok?” He swung the car backwards out into a wide arch as he pulled out of his parking spot. Kennedy looked back over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t about to ram into anything. Her shoulder slammed the passenger door when he straightened out and pumped the gas. “Sorry,” he whispered to her.

Kennedy checked to make sure her seat belt was tight.

“No, no, no. I’m coming over right now.” Carl was almost yelling. “Well if it’s too dangerous for me, then I’m not about to just leave you there ... You’re sure you’re not hurt? ... Ok, we’re already on our way ... Yeah, I’ve got Kennedy here with me. Stay put. And stay away from the windows, all right? Go in the back office and lock the door until I get there ... Fine, stay until the police get there then ... Be safe, baby. I love you.”

His complexion had paled several degrees by the time he hung up. “Sandy’s run into some problems at the pregnancy center. We need to stop and make sure everything’s all right.”

Kennedy saw the way the vein in his neck twitched and didn’t ask for any more information. His knuckles were almost white against the steering wheel. She sensed it wasn’t the appropriate time to joke about him missing his afternoon football game.

Carl sped the entire time and broke several other traffic laws as he weaved his way through the lazy weekend traffic. When he finally turned onto Elm Street, the whole sidewalk was littered with people. Some waved picket signs. Others shouted. Kennedy couldn’t distinguish the words but felt the vibrations of their angry yells like a low, violent rumble. Down the road a ways were two parked police cars, their red and blue siren lights spinning in the midday sun.

Carl snaked his way into a parallel parking spot next to some yellow police tape. “Stay here.” He slammed the door shut behind him and jostled his way down the sidewalk with fists clenched. Kennedy jumped out and followed him.

“What’s going on?” he demanded as a policewoman walked up.

“Sir, this is a zoned area. Please stay behind the tape.”

“My wife is in that building.” Carl had to yell to be heard. Kennedy didn’t notice until then the broken glass glistening on the pavement. Two other police officers were holding back crowds while picketers waved around signs with sayings like, Keep Your Regulations Off My Uterus, and Pro-Choice or No Choice. Kennedy stayed close by Carl’s shoulder.

“Your wife’s in there, you say?” the police officer repeated.

“She just called me a few minutes ago.”

A young man hollered, “Hey, aren’t you the pastor at that mega-church?”

Carl glared but said nothing.

The guy waved his hand in the air and pointed. “This is the pastor. The one who opened up the clinic.”

A few people started shouting, and even though nobody made their way closer to the yellow tape, the policewoman grabbed Carl by the elbow. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”

Kennedy stepped as gingerly as she could around the broken glass while trying to keep up with them. “Sandy!” Carl shouted as soon as they got into the center, but all Kennedy noticed were the walls splashed with crass pictures, angry slogans, and an obscene statement or two. It felt as if someone hit her in the gut and then left his fist there to fester.

“Sandy!” Carl repeated.

“I’ll be back to ask you some questions later.” Kennedy doubted Carl heard the police officer before she went out the front door.

“Oh, thank God they let you through!” At the sound of Sandy’s voice, Kennedy pried her eyes away from the grotesque graffiti. Sandy rushed to Carl, the extra fabric of her floral dress fluttering around her ankles, and they embraced. Kennedy thought she saw Carl’s broad shoulders tremble, but when they pulled apart, his voice was clear and resolute.

“Baby, tell me exactly what happened.”

“I came straight from church. The protestors were already here, at least some of them. At first, I didn’t even notice the broken windows. I thought they were just doing their picketing thing. You know, they’ve got as much a right to these sidewalks as the rest of us. I was going to walk my way in here and not let them bother me. Well, by the time I was out of the car, that’s when I saw the glass. And some guy starts following me real close, asking me what I’m doing around the center, making rude comments. Then another woman, one of the protestors, started shouting at him, telling him he shouldn’t intimidate me no matter who I am. Then she asks me what I’m doing here, and I tell her my husband and I opened this clinic, and she apologizes for the broken glass. Says it was like that when she got here, and if she had seen who did it she would have reported it to the police. Then she asks if I want to go in, and she just marches up with me, and tells me that we’re women and we have to ...” Sandy’s voice caught, and Kennedy stared at her shoes while Sandy continued. “Says we have to stick together, no matter if we have our political differences. And once she sees me safe in here, she tells me again she’s sorry for the mess. And then she takes her Hands Off My Uterus sign and goes back out with the rest of them.”

Carl and Kennedy were both quiet. Carl was running his hand through his wife’s light brown hair, but Kennedy couldn’t take her eyes off the walls.

“I just can’t believe how insensitive people can be.” Sandy shook her head. “They’ve got their right to picket. They’ve got their right to be heard. But they don’t care about our rights, and now look at this mess.”

Kennedy had been trying to figure out a particular image spray-painted on the wall. “What’s up with the hanger? What does that have to do with ...” It felt like someone grabbed the inside of her stomach and twisted a full three-hundred-sixty degrees. “Oh.”

“There’s more.” Sandy glanced over at her husband. “You want to see the worst now or later?”

“May as well get it over with.” Carl followed Sandy to the back office. She was a tall woman but looked half a foot shorter by the time they arrived there.

Kennedy’s nervous chuckle sounded out of place as it echoed against the walls. “What’s so intimidating about a cookie?”

“I’m sorry, babe,” Sandy whispered.

Kennedy glanced at Carl.

“Oreo,” he explained in a lifeless monotone. “Black on the outside. White on the inside.”

Sandy shut the door and pointed at the wall. “If it makes you feel any better, I got my own message, too.” The room suddenly felt twice as small. Sandy had moved the wall calendar to cover some of the letters, but Kennedy could still see the huge red N and the bottom half of the word lover underneath.

Carl and Sandy held each other for several minutes in silence. Kennedy didn’t know where to look or what to say. Indignation welled up in her chest like pressure building up in a sealed flask. These were her friends. From her earliest memories, the Lindgrens had been helping people, loving people, taking people into their homes. They didn’t deserve any of this. She wondered what her dad would say. Would he have the words to make sense of this type of hatred and emotional violence? Kennedy wrapped her arms around herself again, but that did nothing to stop her trembling.

“Father God ...” Carl’s words were loud and sounded completely out of place in the face of such darkness and shame. “I thank you for protecting my Sandy when she was here alone. And I thank you for the kind lady who helped her reach the center safely. And even though it tears me up inside God, I thank you for the jerk who insulted my wife on the sidewalk. I thank you for the stupid, blind, ignoramuses who desecrated our new center. Because somehow, I know you have a plan for them. And somehow, I know you love them. And if I have to be totally honest with you, Father, I have to admit that I would be just as lost and just as angry and just as hateful if you hadn’t poured out your grace on me. So forgive me, Lord. Forgive me for the anger I feel. Forgive me for hating them for hurting my wife, making her feel unsafe.”

Carl’s voice caught, and Kennedy glanced up to see the tears splashing down his cheeks onto his wife’s arms as they leaned their foreheads against each other.

“Forgive me, Lord, because I can’t love these idiots like you do.” Carl was crying softly now. Kennedy bit her lip, but that did nothing to contain her emotion.

“Lord, you’re the King. You reign bigger than all this. You reign bigger than this center. You reign bigger than politics. You reign bigger than abortion or racism or intolerance or injustice. You reign bigger than the ignorance that has kept this country in darkness for so long. And now we’re asking you to come into our little, humble, violated center today and show yourself bigger. Bigger than fear. Bigger than revenge. Bigger than any of their slurs or any of their hate speech or any of their rage. And be bigger than us, too. Bigger than our unforgiveness. Bigger than our hurt. Because, Father, you know we’re hurting something awful right now.”

There was no amen. Only a small, almost indistinguishable rushing in Kennedy’s spirit. She opened her eyes. Carl and Sandy had already pulled apart and were laughing quietly at each other’s tear-stained faces. Kennedy wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened, but she recalled how insecure she had felt at St. Margaret’s earlier. She thought about how small she had felt living with Secret Seminary students who risked North Korean death camps for the sake of the gospel. She thought about how envious she had felt when everyone around her was getting touched by God and she was left sitting in the bleachers to watch.

So maybe she hadn’t lifted her hands in complete and utter abandon. Maybe she hadn’t sung out her heart in ecstasy or faced a North Korean prison cell for her bold faith. But she had witnessed something more real than anything she had experienced since she returned to the States. She couldn’t put a name to it and probably never could, but Kennedy knew she was somehow better for it, and she knew it was something she would carry in a sacred part of her heart for the rest of her life.