Courting Trouble

Upheaval

|Upheaval.|

It was now one week after Malisha's second incidence with Duke and all the young woman had done was spend time holed up in her room reading. In the rare times she did not have a book in her hands, Malisha could be found in the meadows riding and atop the white broodmare called Whiskers, her thoughts would often wander delving deep into a past that was filled with Duke and other childhood memories.

Try as she may, she could not help it as her thoughts continued to walk that singular path, digging up memories and others that contained a particularly annoying young man. Denying it as she may, the memories were mostly beautiful. Beautiful memories of her past, her childhood until a certain age when they began to get weary. It was a sad time to recall and her thoughts often grew heavy and it was in this moments that she exchanged them for much lighter ones. Those evoked by the characters that had filled the pages of her fictional books.

Sometimes Malisha would walk into her mother's garden. Her eyes too weary to continue reading and there, in the evening light, she would cry out to God questioning her very existence and the reasoning that was behind everything that she had experience upto that point in her life.

Speaking to God always refreshed her and in so many ways her heart and mind were renewed. Many are the times she had felt led to read one scripture or another with the words speaking not just to her mind, but to her soul, her heart and her emotions as well. Somehow these words convinced her of a certain truths, truths that changed her life.

One particular passage contained within an epistle lingered in her mind. It said, 'And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose' . It spoke of predestination and justification and above all it spoke of a great love, something that Malisha felt had now become foreign to her. Above all it made her wonder, wonder about this goodbess and how any of the things that she had gone through until that moment would eventually work out for her own good.

If anything, she felt guilty. For that same scripture that spoke of love also said that to hate was the same thing as murder and having assaulting someone and nonetheless one that was in a position of authority made her feel like she had already gone beyond judgment and to the realm of the condemned.

Trust! Trust! That was yet another recurring theme in all those scriptures. It was also what the Parson kept hammering into her mind every other Sunday. Her and other countless believers whose slates seemed to be much cleaner than hers. It was hard Malisha admitted. Not just to herself, but to God also and the parson who was rather quick in helping her so she could go on and figure things out if only to find some semblance of peace and the answers she was searching for.

For how could she trust someone that she could not see when all the people that she knew let her down constantly? "If all the people that you can see have let you down, then maybe, maybe it's probably time for you trust in the unseen." That had been her Parson's advice and even if it sounded strange, she had decided not to try and make sense of it. Instead, for a start she practiced and agreed to live by it if only to just test and see what the man was going on about.

To expound on this, the Parson aldo showed her another portion of scripture one she had been too lazy to read and this too also talked to her about love.

Not the kind of love that one would think, like filial and eros love. No, the parson called it Agape. A love that was so strong, so wonderful and so complete. So complete that nothing could seperate her His love. It was a love that He embodied. A love that was his entire person, his entire ministry even when he still walked here on earth. Still present in her heart that she had to ask, "Even when my parents think that I am irredeemable in every way?"

The Parson had nodded, but she still had her doubts and questioned why this Jesus would care for her, the number one sinner in Veterum when all he had been was a poster child for all that was good and was right. It was not a secret that she was not the best of the  believers and even though she had attended believers' school as a child, she readily admitted to have only practiced it where it had worked out for her. Like David and Goliath, Duke had been her Goliath and she the ever resilient David.

"No, it's not like that Malisha. Don't just take one scripture and contort it to use it for your own personal gain. Read the scriptures understand the context, then apply it to your life."

"I don't get it." Malisha had replied with a frown on her face. She had tried to make sense of what the Parson was telling her, but once again, she had failed miserably.

"The kind of war that we wage is a spiritual one, where we leave everything to God. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. "

"I still don't get it." She had gone on to respond adamantly.

"Don't worry." The Parson had told her still smiling. "With time, as you get to know the Scriptures, God will reveal it to you. Even I am still learning." It puzzled Malisha to no end to hear that, but at the same time it gave her hope. Nore hope than she could have ever imagined and the more she continued to think about it, the more the words kept replaying in her mind. Unwittingly, she found herself meditating upon it so much that it was all she ever did. The answers eluded her but the fixation still remained. A state that her mother found her in that evening when she walked into her room.

"We think that you should go back to your old room?" her mother had said as she came to a stop at the side of her bed.

"WHAT?" Malisha looked up from reading her Bible, her mother's word surprising her more than anything.

"Why would your mother, or even the General, lift their ban after just one week? Usually, their punishments last for weeks or even months depending on what you did." Her inner voice reasoned and Malisha agreed with it.

" You're right.This request does sound suspicious." she thought back her head shaking with apprehension. "NO!" Malisha finally admitted.

"What? Why?" The look on her mother's face was priceless. "You are joking, right?" Malisha shook her head no and continued with her reading. Her mother on the other hand continued to pester her with protests and through it all Malisha continued to remain adamant, her excuse being - she had gotten used to the privacy and solitude of the room and was not ready to give it up just yet. She was being sarcastic and they both knew it. Notwithstanding, Malisha bore a certain fear of coming to disappoint them and the eventual occurrence of having to get sent back up into that attic again. "Fine! Fine! At least have us redecorated it for you." Her mother answered back soldiering on despite her daughter's unwillingness to give in.

"Mum, just let it go," Malisha complained, a pained expression now forming on her face as she desperately fought back to go back to her reading.

"Why do you keep on insisting on living in such a clammy space? It can't be healthy. "

"Yet, if I recall clearly, it was you and dad who sent me up to live in this clammy space." Malisha retorted, still managing to hold on to her book despite her mother's constant interruptions.

"Your father insists. Please, have us move out the boxes then. You know, to expose the windows and to get rid of these musty smells. Maybe even a change of wallpapers. Nothing too drastic I promise."

"Arggh! Fine mother just do it, but leave me out of it and in peace to--!"

"So you will allow us to do it? "

"I do not know why you even ask. Do what you want. I do not care. It's your house after all and I have no use for these boxes anyway."

"Great!" Her mother cheered, smacking her hands together as her mind began to concort plans and ideas for the huge space that was before them. "I will have the boxes moved out and the redecoration will begin first thing tomorrow morning." Malisha released another groan and turned over on her belly already dreading the morning hours to come.