Installment 3 Jedidiah Stitch

“Mickey Massacre”


        Any normal 10 year old would never think of walking towards the barrel of a loaded gun. Fortunately, Jedidiah was not a normal 10 year old. Jedidiah was not always so brave, however. There was a time, almost a year before, that Jedidiah was made fun of at school for his long name, his short stature, his messy blond hair that even gel could not tame, and his clothes that were usually quite worn looking as they were passed from brother to brother, finally arriving at the youngest of 4.
       Then Jedidiah met Mickey “Massacre” Smith, the meanest biggest bully in the 5th grade. Jedidiah was the smallest wimpiest kid in the 4th grade. Mickey would give wedgies to the kindergartners and steal lunch money from little first grade girls leaving them in tears.
      Nobody dared to stand up to The Massacre because he was so huge and terrifying. Jedidiah would not have stood up to him either if it weren’t for Susie Sullivan. Susie had eyes that sparkled like diamonds, a smile as sweet as ice cream, and curly golden locks the color of sunshine. Mickey made Susie cry by spitting on her ham sandwich. Jedidiah couldn’t stand it any longer.
       Jedidiah was a flea compared to Mickey. Despite this, he walked right up to Mickey confronting him. He raised his right fist as high as he could, which only fell to Mickey’s belly. Jed was sure that Mickey’s belly was as hard as a bag of rocks, but none-the-less he started to slowly move his fist towards it. Right before contact was made, Jed heard a voice. The voice said “Stop! Pray!”
     Now Jedidiah recognized a voice as his conscious, the softer version of his own voice when faced with indecision, but this voice was different. He knew this was God. Jedidiah accepted Christ into his heart at a tender age of 6 and at that time, even though he truly meant well, he did not know what that meant entirely. He never heard this voice so clearly before. This voice was telling Jedidiah to not only stop, but to pray….for Mickey. Jedidiah slowly put his fist down. He stood silently in prayer, while a very shocked Mickey started to laugh.
     “Have you met the Lord Jesus?” Jedidiah calmly asked the huge 5th grader.
Mickey’s mouth dropped open. His knees gave way and he fell to the dirty cafeteria floor. Then his chuckles turned to sobbing.
      Jedidiah, determined to make a difference, kept at it. “Jesus died for you and me. You can know him as I do and change your ways.”
      Mickey looked up and directed his anger, frustrations and sadness of his horrible home life towards the heavens; putting aside all of these, he replied, “I want to change. I do. I do.”
      By this time the entire 5th grade, and most of the 4th, were surrounding the two boys, mostly standing in awe of what they were witnessing. The smallest boy at Thomas Morrow Elementary School had brought the biggest boy in the city to his knees in submission.
      Of course, Jedidiah knew that it was God and not by his own strength that had done this miracle, but most of the kids did not. Close to 4o students witnessed Jedidiah lead Mickey “the Massacre” to Christ and they wanted to have that same power.
      Ever since this incident a year ago, Jedidiah has spoken directly to God. His dreams and visions tell him what to do and his prayers give him the tools he needs to accomplish his missions. This is why Jedidiah was not afraid to walk towards the barrel of a gun, a loaded one at that. After all, the Lord was in charge and this was not his ending. In fact, as Jedidiah continued to walk forward, at approximately the same time that the man pulled the trigger, Jedidiah tripped on a stick. He fell to the muddy ground and narrowly, but not coincidentally, missed being shot in the face by a deadly bullet

Jedidiah Stitch continued....part 2

Here is the 2nd installment of my serial blog story. Please come back next Thursday for part 3

        Without even flinching, Jedidiah reached inside his backpack and pulled out the flashlight and bible. He began reading from John chapter 3. The nameless man dropped the plank and got on his knees. He began to cry as Jedidiah read “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton son, For whoever believes in him shall not perish but will have everlasting life.” The man, who was by this point weeping uncontrollably, slowly crawled over to the huddled children and untied them. Jedidiah kept reading, as if he did not even notice the man’s actions. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Then Jedidiah stopped and looked at the man and children crammed together in the corner. He then reached in his back pack and handed the youngest boy the two cars. He gave the scared 6 year old girl a stick of gum and to the oldest boy, who looked maybe 9, he gave the comic books. Then he gave a stick of gum to the man, who now looked embarrassed.  Jedidiah sat down next to the man.

            “What is your name?” Jedidiah asked boldly.

            “Elliot Bently” the plankless man replied.

            “You are forgiven by God’s grace. Just send the kids home.” Jedidiah said and rose to stand.  Then he turned and headed out the unplanked window.

            Jedidiah knew that he was not going home. He walked 3 more blocks further into the seedy downtown area. Most 10 year olds would have trembled in fear, but Jedidiah was not afraid. He walked until he found a dirty wooden bench. He sat down and prayed for wisdom and guidance.

            After almost a half hour, Jed started walked west toward a bridge. There was a man, standing on the edge of it staring into the ditch below. He wavered back and forth. The man, whose clothes were ragged and dirty, did not seem well.

            “Hey sir!” Jedidiah called to the man.

            “Uh” the man whimpered back.

            “Please don’t jump”

            The old man pulled  out a pistol and pointed it towards Jed. “How dare you tell me what to do youngin’” The man uttered. “You have no idea what I am going through.”

            Jedidiah calmly moved closer to the man, not fearing the gun that was pointed to his chest. “Please sir, I know more than you think and I know you are a child of God.”

            The man, whose heart was stone, kept the gun up pointed at Jed. “I’ll take you out too boy. I am not afraid to die.” The arthritic hand wobbled but it stayed focused on its target.

            “I know sir. But this is not God’s plan.” Jedidiah continued moving closer. He was so close, now Jed could smell the man’s stench of alcohol, tobacco and some other unidentifiable smells.

            The old man pulled the trigger.

Jedidiah Stitch

1st installment of my serial novel, Jedidiah Stitch  , come back next Thursday for part 2

Jedidiah Stitch tumbled out of his warm cozy bed onto the hard wooden floor. Today was a big day for Jedidiah. He crawled across the room and peered once again into his backpack that he packed the night before. There was a flashlight, his tattered Bible, three comic books, six sticks of gum, a sweat shirt, an apple, his bottle cap collection and 2 hot wheel cars. Then he added a string that used to belong to an old kite. He pulled the enormous backpack on his pajama clad body. Jedidiah was too excited to waste time with dressing this morning.

He stealthfully tip-toed to the window and slowly climbed out onto the tree below.  Jedidiah was now free. He rubbed his scraggly blond hair out of his eyes and decided the best course of action was west through the giant dirt lot.  The dirt lot was full of interesting things to add to his backpack, things he may need on his journey down town.

Down town is four blocks from Jed’s small house on Jefferson Street.  The dirt lot was bumpy and sometimes contained nails, which if found would be added to his stash. The only problem this morning was that Jedidiah forgot his shoes.  So his dirty size threes scuffled through the empty lot.

Jedidiah didn’t know where his journey would lead him. His vision last night was of an old red brick building that had wood planks over the two upstairs windows.  He could hear muffled crying and arguing but the vision ended without him recognizing what he was being called to do. When he packed his bag some of the odd items seemed to jump off his shelf and into his hands; still Jed had no idea what God had in store for him today.

After four long blocks and very swollen feet Jed saw the red building from his dream. The only thing missing was one wooden plank. Jedidiah climbed the metal staircase on his knees trying to avoid the squeaky steps. He could see in the one uncovered window. “Maybe I am too early, “ Jedidiah whispered.

There were three children huddled in the corner. Jedidiah knew that one of them was the crying child from the night before. Through the dimly lit room he could see that there was someone else there. He could feel an evil presence and the sweat from his brow was dripping onto his now muddy feet.  He wiped his hands on the back of his puppy pajamas. Jedidiah knelt and prayed, not as a habit but as a necessity. He knew something was wrong here, someone was evil and something had to be done about it.

What Jedidiah didn’t know was that the man inside had the missing plank in his hand. For some reason the man thought he may need it. Did the man suspect a supernaturally charged ten year old was outside on his fire escape? Probably not. The man was scared, but not of anything earthly. 

Jedidiah stood up and pulled on his sweat shirt. Then he tried to smooth down his unruly bed head and adjusted his pjs. He was not scared; rather he was full of peace. He still did not know what he was going to do, but those children did not belong in this abandoned apartment building. Those children needed to be saved.

Jedidiah wiggled his way under the planked window, the one closest to the children. A rumbling noise from the opposite corner revealed a dark figure wielding a wooden plank. Jed rose and stood facing the figure with his arms outstretched as a sign of surrender. He resembled the Lord on the cross with his dirt stained palms facing the man.

The man raised the plank even higher above his head ready to strike.

What not to wear at Walmart (or anywhere else on the planet)

        This weekend I went to Walmart and saw someone that needs to join the ranks of the worst dressed Walmart shopper. Yes, this list is long and easy to get onto. As a matter of fact, when you type in "worst dressed people at Walmart" there are several sites of photos that make it into this special hall of infamy. Any one wearing clothes in which your body parts hang out unnaturally or way to much skin is revealed automatically goes onto this list.  Ladies who wear a double D but squeeze themselves into a "small" tee shirt easily are placed in the ranks of terrible clothing attire. I can't even fit my tiny self into a small tee shirt anymore and when I do I look like I am trying to relive my teenage years.  People who are not children in pajamas also go on the list especially those with the cartoon character pjs.  I saw a lady in her nasty scraggly robe there the other night and I was in awe, it was not even late enough to be in your robe as it was maybe 7 pm.
       If you are going to purposely subject yourself to stares and glances of other shoppers, you should at least wear clean pajamas. Then there is the lady who thinks she is still 18, though to be nice she was over 40. I love the eighties, at least their music, but women in their middle 40's to 50's should not be wearing spandex pants with a neon over the shoulder shirt. I also recommend proper undergarments at the store. Heavy women should not wear spandex in any circumstance and they most definitely should wear underwear that covers properly and you most definitely need a bra with an over the shoulder shirt  whatever size you are.  I will save the visual for you and stop there. Also high heels do not go with everything, especially tiny shorts that by the way do not fit women in the plus sizes.  I am not even allowed to wear my daisy dukes outside and I have a nice figure in my opinion.   I have an itty bitty skirt that I thought would be nice to wear out and I know Jay, my best friend and body guard for the night, would have sent me back to my house to change.
       Of course some people don't have time to prepare themselves before going out, I mean it is only Walmart right? I occasionally will wear my sweats out and have done so early or late at night. But I constantly see my students at Walmart so I know I can't look too scraggly. Yes, there have been occasions when my lion's mane was unruly or when my socks didn't match or even gasp, wearing a sports bra. But at least I know I won't be caught as one of the worst dressed there. I hate to only pick on the women shoppers, but unfortunately they bring it on themselves. I have seen a few men who have been flamboyant or colorful in their clothing choices at Walmart. Even seen a few men in their jammies there, but by far the women take the cake.