Taken By Love

Laundry Mat

I sat up the next morning with a head ache. I put my hand on my forehead then looked at the clock, it was already 9:30 AM. I looked around the room and saw my mom sitting at the desk.

"Mom why'd you let me sleep in."

Mom looked at me and answered, "It's only 9AM when I was your age I slept till 11AM, you looked so peaceful, didn't want to disturb you if you were having a good dream."

"Well I wasn't." I said as I removed the covers and stood and walked toward the bathroom. I shut the door behind me and the first thing I did was grab three Ibuprofen. I put them in my mouth, filled a cup with water, and washed them down my throat. I quickly got dressed and came out. My mom was standing by the door looking at me and said, "Hey do you think you can do the laundry today, I have to meet your father at the church."

"Yeah sure, how much is there?"

"Not much." My mom said as she pointed toward the bed which had two large baskets of laundry on top.

"Yeah not much for this family." I said.

Mom then gave me the money and laundry detergent and we loaded up my truck. I owned a black Ford, I had been given it by my rich friend Carl, for my sixteenth birthday. He had fixed it up for me and said it wasn't very expensive. I climbed into the front seat and turned on engine. My mom came up to me and said, "Be careful."

"Mom it's only the laundry mate, I think I can handle it."

"Yeah I know, but we're in the big city now, not like it was back in Arizona."

"Mom I get it I have my gun, I'll be fine."

***

The Laundry Mat wasn't far from the motel, but it took a good hour to get there because of traffic. I made it there just during Launch hour so it wasn't busy. I had to make two trips back and forth from my truck to get all the laundry inside, but it didn't take too long. The laundry mat was almost empty, except for two older women and a young man sitting in the corner on his phone paying no attention to me. Not like I wanted him to. 

Once I had finished putting all the laundry in washers I knew it would take about a haft hour until it was ready to dry, so I pulled out my Bible and sat down. I read the book of Hebrews one of my favorites. Not five minutes later there was no one in the mat. I was glad to be alone until a young man came in. I kept my eyes on him because of his unusual build. He almost seemed to a body builder but not quite that. I tried to keep my eyes off of him but my suspicious nature kept me peeking toward him. He wore a leather jacket and didn't have any laundry with him. "Maybe he left and came back." I thought. He wore his hood over his face and all I could see was a layer of dark scruff. He didn't seem to know I was there, he never looked at me. He only stared down at his feet as he leaned against the wall. I was hiding in the corner not making any noise. Maybe he didn't know I was there. 

I tried to stay silent until I heard that voice inside me, like I had heard quite often frankly. The Holy Spirit whispered for me to go talk to him. "No," I said in my mind. "God have you seen that guy, he looks like a druggie." I couldn't go talk to him, I didn't want to but somehow like God does a lot, I found myself on my feet walking towards him. He looked up at me with surprise on his face as he leaned against the wall next to him.

I sat there in silence for a moment until the words just came out, "My names, Emma, what's yours?" 

He looked at me with even more surprise on his face. "You know I don't really care, to know your name nor want you to know mine."

I wasn't surprised by the tone in his voice. So I just continued my strategy. "Okay, If you won't tell me your name I'll just guess. Bob?"

"No."

"Larry? Jacob? Jerry?" I continued.

"No, no and no." He said bluntly.

"It must be something common, what about Cody?"

He looked at me and said nothing.

"Cody it is then. Well Cody I'll just say it out right, I'm a Christian, and I'm here to warn you of a terrible that will befall unless you take my advice."

He looked at me once more with annoyance on his face. 

"And what might that be?"

"Hell, Cody, Hell. And My advice is that you listen very carefully to what I'm about to say."