Always Tried and Proven (13 page)

      “I guess I did.”

     “You did realize, of course, that my advice was designed to ensure that I’d get to see you in it?” he laughed.

      Callie blushed.  She bowed her head in an attempt to hide the confusion and embarrassment that she felt.  Her breath was hitching somehow in her throat, and her hands were clenched in her lap.

       She felt warm fingers caressing the bare skin of her shoulder, and knew that Sam was closing in.  “Callie?”  he demanded gently.

      She looked up at him warily, and tried to smile.  She failed.  She was terrified of this man.

    Sam sighed, and smiled at her resolutely.  “How about you and I go out  someplace for some breakfast; where we can relax, without Jimmie glaring a hole in my back?”

       Callie laughed.  “All right.”  She agreed.

      “Callie!  How about going for breakfast?”  Sean called from the bandstand.

     “No, thanks.”  She replied.  “Not tonight.”  She looked at the boys and had to grin.   Jimmie was, in fact, scowling at Sam.

      “Good girl.  Now, let’s make our escape.”  Sam suggested.

     “I’ll have to get my guitar, Sam, and we’ll have to go out the back.”  She told him apologetically.  She got up and went to take care of her business, as quickly as possible.  Sam followed at a leisurely pace.  He introduced himself to the band while Callie gathered her things.  She hurried off the stage, sensing hostility against Sam brewing in Jimmie’s attitude.

     “Sam just came to New York City a couple of days ago.  He’s a very good friend.  He has a traveling evangelistic tent ministry.”  She explained with an encouraging smile to the boys.  She put her arm through Sam’s to make it known that she would tolerate no abuse of him.

      “You’re a freakin' …
preacher
?”  Jimmie blurted.

      “Of sorts.”  Sam agreed.

     “Sounds like a blooming three-ring circus, to
me
.”  Jimmie muttered.  “What do you want with Callie?”  he snapped angrily.  Sean put a restraining hand on Jimmie’s arm, but Sam just looked at him calmly.

      “Callie knows exactly what I want.  That’s all that matters.”  He picked up her guitar, and nodded at the three men watching with stunned expressions.  “Goodnight.  Nice to meet you all.” He said, as though Jimmie didn’t disturb him at all.

    “Tell you what, you smart-mouth, butt-head preacher!  Let’s you and I step outside.”  Jimmie suggested angrily.

     Sam stopped, and looked at him.  Callie swore that she saw compassion in Sam’s eyes.  “I feel no need to do that, Jimmie.  The lady is with me and I’m going to do everything I can to keep it that way.  Sorry if that makes you angry, but I am not really interested in fighting about it.  Excuse us.”  He turned, and put his arm around Callie.

      Callie heard Sean and Dalton restraining Jimmie, and talking sense to him as they left. 

      “Sam, I am so sorry.”  She said in a whisper as they went out the back door.

     “It’s all right.”  Sam assured her with a chuckle.  “I guess that you didn’t know how he felt about you, eh?”

    Callie gave him a mystified look.  “I have no idea what you mean.” She admitted.

      Sam put her guitar in the back seat of his car, and then he drew her into his arms.  He linked his fingers loosely behind her back.  “He wants you, Callie.  Perhaps you didn’t know it, but I have no doubt about it.  I knew it the first time he looked at us together.”

     “But we’re just friends.”  She objected hotly.  “We’ve always been just friends!  How dare he think he can behave this way?”

     “Well, perhaps he took a bit for granted.  My showing up here seems to have forced his hand a bit.”

      Callie snorted.  “So now, what do I do?” she gasped.

     “Nothing, if you want my suggestion.”  Sam advised quietly.  “I suspect he’ll let you know what he thinks of it all, before too much time goes by.  But I’d suggest that you leave it to him.  I just hope I’m around to shield you from him, if things get unpleasant.  I get the feeling he could be tough to handle.” 

     He looked worried.  “You’re tired, and I think, a bit upset.  Why don’t I drive you home tonight?  We can swing by here tomorrow and pick up your truck on the way to the tent, if it’s all right.”

     “Sure.  I’d like that, I think.”  Callie admitted.  “Sam, you’re very good to me.”

     He just smiled.

   They ate a leisurely breakfast at a cafe, and exchanged small talk.  Callie found herself feeling quite relaxed with Sam.  He sat on the same side of the booth with her; but other than that, he behaved perfectly.

   He told her more about himself.  She discovered that his father had abandoned them before Sam’s birth.  His mother had been too young, totally unprepared to raise a child.

     “She’d run away from home to be with him, and he thought that was fine until responsibility came into the picture.  Then he was gone, real fast.  She was scared, and alone.  She didn’t feel she could go back to her stepfather and mother.  The old man had been giving her the eye, and she was afraid it was just a matter of time before he decided he could get away with having his cake and eating it, too.  So, she just stayed in the city and did the best she could.”

     “She was pretty, and it didn’t take her long to discover that she could make a great deal more money dancing in the inns, than she could flipping food on a grill.  Only hitch was, her boss began to demand that she do more than dance.  His customers wanted to sample the merchandise, and he began pimping her.  He told her he’d kill her and me both, if she didn’t cooperate with him.  I didn’t figure out what was going on until I was about twelve.  She did a marvelous job of keeping her mouth shut, and her troubles to herself.”

     “Sam, where is she now?”  Callie asked worriedly.

   “She died of venereal disease when I was about fourteen.  But before she died, a street evangelist led her to the Lord.  She took us in, bless her, and nursed Mum until the day she died.”

      Callie was shocked, and troubled.  “How terrible for her, and you!  Well; what did you do then?”

     Sam shrugged.  “I wasn’t in the market for God at the time.  I was angry.  I was already doing drugs in a big way; and I’d discovered I could make a whole lot of money selling them, as well as keep myself supplied.  You know, ironically it may be that the drugs kept me from worse things, at times.  Isn’t that a strange thing to say?  But when I was high, I forgot to be angry, forgot about Mum.  I’d forget I was hungry, or God help me, I may have killed to get food at times.  Things got very lean.  But I always had drugs, so I stayed pretty mellow.”    

     “But, the longer you live with vermin, the more they’ll turn and bite you.  I began to grow weary of being used and manipulated and abused by the hard core dealers.  So, I left and caught a boat out of Sydney with what money I had, and I made it to the USA by selling drugs to the sailors.  I ended up in New York City and met some new friends.  Took me a matter of a few hours to end up in the gutter, almost dead.”

     He shook his head.  “I knew as they were shooting me up that they were pumping far too much into me, but I was too wasted to do anything about it.”

      “Sam, why?  Why did they do that to you?”  she asked, feeling sick at heart.

     He shrugged.  “Well, honey, it just turned out to be a lot more party than I’d bargained on.  It seemed they were into group sex, and I was the prize of the evening.  Everybody wanted their turn, and I was not obliging.  One thing that I had determined, was that I was never going to be used that way, again.”

    “When I wanted to leave early, they took offense and demanded payment for the drugs.  Of course, I didn’t have anything to give them.  So they mugged me, beat me half to death, loaded me up with Mescaline, got their jollies and dumped me in the alley when they were done with me.”

     Callie’s mouth dropped open. “Sam, it’s too horrible.” She gasped.

     He just raised an eyebrow.  “Well, it didn’t surprise me.  I’d been begging for it for years.  I always figured I’d end up dead one way or the other.  I was fearless because death was always just around the corner.  I had no love for life, no self-esteem to speak of.  I didn't really care, honestly.  I just wanted the nightmare to end.”

     “But ... they raped you?  The women, and the men, too?”

He gave her a look that told her he’d been there, and he didn’t relish reliving the details.  He almost looked like someone else, not the strong Sam  she knew.  His eyes were hard, and flashed with abhorrence.

     “It happens all the time.  The perversion on the streets is horrific.  You have no idea, Callie.  When people do drugs heavily, the worst of their nature rises surely to the surface.  They trap young, innocent teens and children and give them drugs.  When the victim gets too wasted, there’s no fight in them.  Not even any crying.  They just lay there in a stupor and wish they could do something about it.”

     He sighed.  “When you come out of it, you wonder if what you thought happened, was real.  You find that you’re in pain and bleeding, sometimes beaten or have even been tortured.  You swear you’ll never let them do it to you again.  But then, the need for drugs gets hold of you, and you can’t reason it away.  When the need becomes too strong, you go looking for drugs and you don’t care what they might do to you, at that moment.  The need for the fix outweighs everything else.”

     Callie looked at her hands.  It was too awful to comprehend.

     “Innocence went out the window at a very young age, Callie.  But you know, I almost feel now, as though it all happened to someone else.  I don’t ever think about it, but not because it’s so painful.  It’s because my heart and my emotions have been truly healed.  And I haven’t ever just … loved a woman because I loved her.  So in a way, I think, I’ve got that before me, yet.”

     She turned tortured eyes up to him.  “Did all this end that night, when you went into the hospital?”

    “Yeah.” Sam admitted.  “That man shook my tree, but good.  When I got better, I went through drug rehab and got some help regarding my career.  They gave me a scholarship, and sent me to a monastery.  I stayed there until I was able to get into a good Bible College.  But it took a long time before I could look at men
or
women for that matter, without suspicion that they wanted to use me somehow.”

      “How did you get over it?”

      Sam smiled.  “You asked.” He reminded her.  “Jesus came into my life.  And he sent a man to be a father to me.  First, the Lord visited me.  He told me not to lose heart, and he told me that a man would be coming.  He told me to go with the man.  So, I did.  He came right after I graduated from Bible College, and he asked me if I’d like to travel with him.  I was suspicious as all get out, of course, but I had to go.  So, I went to live with him, and I traveled with his ministry for some years.  Now, he’s retired and I’m on my own.”

     Callie shook her head.  “Incredible.”  She complimented.  “Sam, you are so put together and impressive.  I can’t believe what you’ve gone through, and survived.”

     He shrugged.  “Well, Callie.  Life has its curves and its trials.  It’s all in how you respond to them, you know.”

     “No wonder you’re so effective in your ministry.”  She marveled.

     He chuckled.  “I love pulling others out of the quicksand.  I’ll never stop.”  He told her with deep satisfaction.  He looked down into her shining eyes, and smiled.  “Callie, will you help me?” he asked quietly.

     “What do you mean, Sam?” she asked uneasily.

    “Come with the tent.  Travel with us.  Sing with us.  Work with us.” He asked gently.

      Callie was shocked.  “You mean ... all the time?”

     Sam nodded.  “That’s right.  Callie, you touch peoples’ hearts.  You make a difference.  You unlock doors I could never break down, if I wanted to.”

    She blinked.  “I don’t know, Sam.  I haven’t had any preparation, like you have.  I don’t have your kind of miraculous testimony to tell the world.”

     Sam shook his head.  “Few people do, thank God.  But a miracle is a miracle, just so long as it's real.  And salvation is a miracle, Callie.  That levels us all to the same playing field.”

     Callie felt a lead weight settle in her heart.  “You don’t tell, do you?  I mean, people don’t know about your past?”

     Sam looked into her eyes, trying to gauge her reaction.  “No.  Not unless it’s really called for.  Callie, I talk about the drugs, because it’s a common enough story.  But I don’t tell anyone about the rest, unless it will mean something to them specifically.  The public isn’t ready for it.  They’d never get beyond it to listen to what Jesus did for me.  I don’t want to be trapped in that prison, and I don’t want to stumble people.”

     “Then why did you tell me?” she asked uncertainly.

     Sam took her hand.  “Because, I wanted you to know.  Callie, if you can’t take it, I’ll understand.  I just didn’t want to go any further without being totally honest with you.  I want you to come with the tent, and I want you to be with me when you do.  I’ve been clean since I was twenty-three.  Ten years.”

    Callie shook her head emphatically.  “But, Sam.”  She objected.  “I’m stunned!  How can you share these things with me when I’m not even a Christian?  Why do you trust me so much?  How can you ask me to travel with the tent, to be so close to you?”