Chapter 21: Beware Strange Gifts from Strange People

They were having so much fun when they got home they had completely forgotten about the package that arrived from Kate just before they left yesterday. Gabriel cuts the wrapping, but Molly opens the package.

“Uh, dad.”

It throws Gabriel off for a second because he thinks that is the first time she calls him that rather than calling him Gabriel or daddy. “Yeah babe.” He likes it very much.

“Look.”

Gabriel walks over to the box with Lisa and sees what has Molly so intrigued. Lisa speaks for him when she says, “Is that money?”

Indeed it is. After they count it, it adds up to a little over three hundred thousand dollars. They have well over a quarter million dollars piled on the bed. Gabriel grabs the box to see if there is a return address. He looks at the bills to see if the numbers are in sequential order. He figures he has seen one too many movies. Some are, but the bills are obviously used. They are not just used, but they smell as if they have been stored away for a long time.

Molly is looking at him as confused and concerned as he is. Gabriel does a quick check and there is not even any kind of note. Gabriel puts all of it but one stack back in the box and hides it under all the other boxes and bins already in his closet. Molly keeps trying to talk to him, but he just pulls her to his lap and thinks. He reaches over and pulls the .45 out of the nightstand and while holding it he stares at it. Molly reaches out and strokes the gun. Gabriel barely notices. He sets the gun on top of the nightstand at first. He gives the new girls the stern talk about firearm safety and puts it under the pillow. He still has to worry about cops showing up at the house. He fills the girls in on what to do and say if that happens and they like being treated as not just part of the family, but as trusted mature ladies.

Finally Molly will not be ignored anymore, “GABRIEL!!”

He softly says, “Yeah babe.”

“What’s going on?”

“I wish I knew. I need to think.”

“You mean we need to think.”

Gabriel stops and looks at her. “Yes, dear, we need to think.” With that, much of Gabriel’s tensions ease.

If that wasn’t weird enough almost every single day another package shows up from a different person, or at least a different name on the box. By the time they stop showing up ten days later they have over a million dollars.

The date is April 24^th 2021. It is Saturday and other than them having a million dollars in their closet, nothing has changed. They do take half of it up to Steve and Wendy’s and put it inside a fire proof large gun safe. Even then it was a tight fit; only to be done with some rearranging.

Steve didn’t think for one second Gabriel was lying or even exaggerating, it’s not in him, but now he is getting concerned. The girls have stayed with them this whole time and the time has been precious, but for their own safety Gabriel and Molly are going to get Carey and the girls an apartment of their own. They couldn’t find anything in Plymouth, but they did find one in Jackson. They also put some money into their car and Carey was able to find a job at a local grocery store in the same town.

The girls have already been to church with them once and they are going tomorrow, after that they will move on, with the offer to help with bills if needed in the future. Gabriel wants them to continue with church and to work towards getting baptized into the Catholic faith, but Molly and he has done their part and prepared them for the world the best they could in such a short time.

Something is changing, something is coming, and they can both feel it.

Molly and Gabriel know it is for them to take in broken and scared people and then send them out into the world as evangelists of Godly Republican Christian valued children. Whatever is going on both Molly and Gabriel agree it is divine driven. The money really changes nothing but the amount of supplies they can buy for the homeless and needy. Molly and Gabriel live off of each other’s love for one another. They dance.

Though they have no need for that kind of money it does open up some interesting possibilities. Gabriel has had plans to move once he is free of his past, now that reality has become a little more real. He looks over at Molly and he decides he doesn’t give a shit. Molly is far more than he deserves in this life or for that matter needs. Molly is enough. That is Molly’s love. “That is my Molly and this is our dance.”

Come Sunday the girls are dolled up and happy to be going to church. Gabriel has always sought to help other people; in fact, it is pretty much the only way he has been able to find contentment in his life. One of Gabriel’s favorite things to do is study the Word of God. Watching the girls digest it, make a foundation of it, glorify it and seek it out on their own has truly brought joy to his life.

“Alright, ladies, are we ready?”

In unison the girls salute and say, “Yes sir.” He knew something was up when he saw Molly whispering to them in secret, but he thinks it is no end of adorable.

In some truth Gabriel doesn’t quite fit the mould of a devout Catholic, after all he still has evidence tattooed upon him of his outlaw days, but when it comes to adhering to scripture, carrying on Jesus’ ministries and having the courage to speak up about what is right and wrong he has surpassed most of them. Gabriel is grateful for having a sponsor, then godfather and now friend like Bob. Very few personalities could have not only dealt with and understood Gabriel, but kept up with him as far as his thirst to always learn the Word. But to date, almost universally, Gabriel has found that the young mind has a thirst to learn the Word. When done as a reward, not a punishment, the Glory of God is wonderful.

Even though the lingering ridiculousness of Covid is coming to a close they still have every other pew closed off. Although in the back of his mind Gabriel thinks to himself he hopes the lessons to lessen the flesh and increase in the spirit have been learned or the Covid issue could continue on and on until the murder of children stops along with all the other fleshly evil done by democrats and groups of all aspects of life, including some Republicans.