The Flounder Family Chapter 10

Jettison turned the page of his book and looked up. Something was odd, but as he listened to the silent house he could not imagine what had caught his attention.  The kids wee sleeping, at least he hoped so, and the snow had stopped, he hoped again, and Donald had taken both Bensen and Billy home with him after dinner, thank the Lord above. He shook his head and returned to his book.

Dove switched off the bathroom light and scrambled into bed.  “Oh, its cold tonight!”  She smelled like mint toothpaste.

“That’s it!”  Jettison put down his book.

Dove looked at her husband, her hands folded across her lap.  “That’s it?  What’s it? I haven’t done anything.”

Jettison smiled.  “You brushed your teeth.”

“Huh. You’re one Sherlock Holms, honey.”

Jettison waved his hand.  “You don’t usually brush your teeth until after you’ve had your little bed time snack….so….what’s the deal?  Trying to lose weight or something?”

Dove smoothed out her blanket and looked across the room.  “Well, no, I don’t need to lose weight – do I?  I just decided to give up snacks for Lent….that’s all.  No big deal.”

Jettison adjusted his glasses.  “Excuse me?  Lent?  You’re giving up snacks for Lent?  First of all Lent doesn’t even start for two months and second of all – its a Catholic thing.  What-”

Dove’s frown spoke as well as she did.  “Don’t go interrogating me!  I’m not one of your students, you know.  I was just reading some things and I decided that a little self discipline might be a good idea and I’ve heard that Lent is a good time for all that.”

“Reading?  What things?”  Jettison had put his book mark in place.  He folded his hands over the book.

“You remember I was looking things up on Ancestry.com?  Well, it turns out I don’t come from such an illustrious past.”  Dove looked at her husband.  He was listening.  “Well… it turns out my people were at the Salem witch hunts.”  Jettison was still listening.  “And, well, it looks like my people were the ones pushing for the burnings.”  Dove put her hands over her face.  “Oh, Jettison, I’m descended from the bad guys!”

Jettison scooched over on the bed and put his arm around his wife.  He put his head next to hers and pulled her hands down.  “Oh, don’t feel so bad.  We all do – sometimes.  Besides, I don’t see how you could have learned all that from Ancestry.com.  They don’t tell those kinds of details.”

Dove wiped away the impending tears.  “No, I told Dad about my interest in our family history and he brought over his great-grandmother’s diary.  You wouldn’t believe what’s in there.  Lots of family tales and historical events…but she also retold some family legends and they aren’t all nice.  My family was full of fanatics!  Religious as well as state…some great, great, great, great uncle fought and died for the honor of the south.  It seems you can go crazy over anything!”

“So, what does this have to do with Lent?”  Jettison was curious.

Dove sat up a little straighter.  “I was just thinking, it seems to me that I lived my whole life being told that I had a choice about everything and that there was nothing worth getting too upset about – you know?  But in the end, I have no choice about anything because I don’t really know anything.  I don’t know a thing about any religion or any beliefs except maybe a smattering of Judaism and Buddhism and some Muslim stuff,  and that’s only because they were taught in history class. But what Jews, Catholics, Protestants and all the rest really believe – what the people around me believe – what I believe?  I have no idea.”

Jettison absorbed this and stoked his chin.  ‘You have a point…and after what I learned from Marie, I’d say we’d better do some thinking on this.”

Dove’s hand flew to her face again. “OH, gosh Honey, with Dad and Billy and the dinner and everything – I forgot to even ask.  How did your…visit go?”

Jettison stared off at the black window.  “It was very strange.  I feel I should go back and visit her again.  She’s a very sad person, very lost.  I don’t condone what she did and strangely enough I don’t think she condones it either.  She seems really sorry she killed her husband.”

“So why on earth did she do it?”

“Well, that’s a hard thing to ask someone, ‘So why did you kill your husband?’  We just sort of talked about how the prison was treating her and if she needed anything.  Anyway, she got me thinking.  She said she’d like to read about a saint, someone who repented and became better.”

Dove looked down at the book on Jettison’s lap.  “Like that one?”

Jettison picked up the copy of the Life of Thomas More.  “Oh, no, I just came across this when I was at the library looking for something for her.  Actually, you’d probably like it.  You know, he was one of the people who got heretics burned at the stake?  But then when he was faced with his own conflict with Henry VIII, he found that he had the strength to die for his faith, and he was led out by one of the men he had accused. He said he died the King’s good servant – but God’s first.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Well, yes, in a way.  You see, he really did become a saint because in the end he didn’t hate, not even people who were taking his world a part. He conquered the worst in himself.  I don’t envision you killing anyone or being killed, but it shows that people can grow into something pretty amazing.  They can choose compassion over judgment and love over hate.  It makes me wonder if Jesus wasn’t right on track with that love your enemy thing. God knows us pretty well. In the end, if you can’t love with that kind of love, knowing how people are, can we really love anyone? ”

“But what about Marie?  Did she even talk about Leroy, and what happened?”

“Yeah, she said…now don’t get me wrong, but I think her words were pretty significant.  She said, she didn’t know what possessed her.  Marie was obsessed with herself.  She was a control freak and her husband was a victim of his family as well as his wife.  She said that she had been getting angrier and angrier with him for a long time and visions of killing him had been in her mind.  They didn’t own a gun but Marie said she convinced herself that she should have one – just in case some one tried to rob them or something.  Anyway, she said it could have been a steak knife for all the difference it would have made. When they were at the meeting, Leroy said something stupid and she snapped.  She said she wasn’t thinking, it just all sort of happened like someone else was doing it.  She told him he was her worst nightmare and she killed him.  Then as she stared at him she could feel herself lift the gun to her head, but someone stopped her.”

“My God, I’m scared now.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.  And you know, I’m kind of wondering if God isn’t the whole point.”

Dove shook her head. “How’s that?”

“Well, if Marie was possessed…it wasn’t by the God I believe in.  Maybe…this is all speculation on my part, I need to do some serious thinking, but I wonder if when we leave God out of our hearts…maybe something else creeps in.”

Dove stared ahead for a moment, chills spread down her arms.  “If that’s the case, then Lent can’t get here soon enough for me.”