Chapter 24: Get ready, Get Set, Go!

They went to bed on July twenty-third, they wake up on July thirtieth; Gabriel’s birthday. Needless to say they are well rested. None of this seems surprising to Molly: In fact, as the day unfolds, Gabriel gets the feeling that Molly had been getting up and down and letting Gabriel sleep. If Gabriel were to try and figure it out it might fracture his vision again, so he lets it go at that. In the back of his mind, he joyfully thinks, “Well, I guess a divine vision is a long journey. A journey. A journey?” Gabriel starts to remember the specifics of that dream, vision or whatever it was.

He gets ready to mention it to Molly, but she beats him to it and says, “My time, our time, is running out. We have to go.”

“I know.”

Gabriel’s birthday has never really been that big of a deal to him. When he was doing drugs it was a great excuse to get high, but whose kidding who, that was going to happen anyway. Thirty years later and Gabriel has a young lady in his life who absolutely will not take no for an answer.

Molly arranges for a barbecue at Steve and Wendy’s. It is nice to see them again. She gets Bob and Susan to come all the way to Newcastle and very surprisingly to Gabriel she even invites Maria. Maria is a very dear friend of Gabriel’s and he had on more than one occasion attempted to get Molly and Maria together so they could spend some quality time embracing God and community. However, that did not go over with any kind of success. Molly immediately became territorial and even rude to Maria. Gabriel was able to smooth it over so it did not reach disrespectful levels, but he was not happy. This is the first true sign that Molly has become a daughter, much much more true, but a beautiful wonderful daughter none the less.

There is no doubt that Molly and Gabriel are very much alike. The other seems to be able to calm and correct the other without there being too many hurt or angry feelings. For Gabriel all he has to do is lay his hands upon her and all negativity drains away. For Molly all it takes is a word, a look, a caress, a dance and she is lost in divine rapture.

That was a week ago while in the divine suspension and now Gabriel believes she understands that she has a say in his life. An importance in his life that is unequaled. Gabriel is proud of her. Not to mention long ago Gabriel offered to take Maria up to his brother’s so she could see the horses.

On top of all this Molly even got his nephew Vince and his wife Jennifer to come. Gabriel being the baby out of seven, even though he does have another brother and sister from his dad, has a nephew and nieces older than him. In truth Vince and Gabriel grew up more like brothers, than uncle and nephew. Over the years Gabriel even worked for Vince at his auto recyclers. Anyway, Gabriel is glad he and his wife, who is also a Catholic, are coming. Partly because he is important to him, in fact, he was at his baptism: Gabriel kind of figures that everybody who he matters to was at his baptism, and partly because Gabriel feels something is coming and he’s not sure if there will ever be another opportunity for something like this.

They have a wonderful time and Molly is the belle of the ball. She even takes Maria by the hand and leads her down to introduce her to the horses. Gabriel is in a state of shock and ecstasy. Not only is she being wonderful with a woman she once perceived as a rival, but it is the farthest Molly has walked away from Gabriel since they’ve met.

Molly looks back once, but she sees Gabriel watching her so she smiles and starts tugging on Maria’s arm, “Come on, Maria!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Granted the barn is only seventy-five yards maybe from the backyard and the barbecue and Gabriel never really loses sight of her, but a huge weight is lifted off of his shoulders. In fact, tears come to his eyes and he doesn’t even try to hide them.

Steve sees them and then smiles and asks, “What’s going on?”

“This is the first time and definitely the farthest Molly has walked away from me since I recued her from the Satanists and demons.”

After that the barbecue is an amazing success. Bob and Susan drove up in their own car just in case Susan started feeling bad, so they are getting ready to leave. Before they leave Steve, Gabriel, Bob and Vince go up to their dad’s gun collection and check it out. While they are going through it Gabriel finds a .25 automatic mini. He sets it aside with several clips and several big boxes of ammo. Molly just got her first gun.

Gabriel has yet to broach the subject with Molly in any kind of depth, but the reality is Molly is going to have a whole other life after he is gone; so big is their difference in age. She has already taken great strides in the spirit, but Gabriel will teach her to defend herself in the flesh also. The biggest success was when she walked away from him. She is building her independence. It wasn’t a lot, but it was a start. The feelings Gabriel is overflowing with surpasses any time he saw his now Las Vega Raiders or Oakland Athletics win the championship. Amazing.

They are driving home and as they are driving through Folsom they pull over into a gas station quick mart. They are chattering away and then out of the corner of his eye Gabriel sees a black car pull up with wheels screeching. The .45 is under the front seat, but shockingly and in this instance luckily he has the .25 in his rear pocket. It was stupid to forget about it there, but apparently it was God ordained.