CRYPTO: Infidelity (Book 1)

CHAPTER 77: INFIDEL

"So what do you want to do while you're here?" I asked Birdie.

"I don't know... What do you wanna do?" she asked, leaning in closer to me. Her big yellow, green eyes were mesmerizing and her smile was infectious.

"I think you know what I want to do," I said.

"Then what are you waiting for?" she whispered.

I leaned in and kissed her on the mouth, gentle at first but my adrenaline and hormones got the best of me and Birdie encouraged it. You could probably imagine what that led to.

Eventually, Birdie had to go home. She kissed me goodbye, took her groceries, and left. I didn't understand. How could she go back to Rockie when she knew she could have me? Was she still too scared to leave him or did she actually love him? I tried not to think about it too much. For the moment, I was happy. I finally got what I had always dreamed of.

Every chance I got, I sent Birdie a bird emoji and she would often call me and come over. And every time Rockie invited me to hang out with him and the gang, I would decline because I knew he would be leaving and I would be able to have Birdie to myself.

One Friday night, I had a night shift and I was pretty disappointed I wouldn't be able to see Birdie, but I remembered that street preacher and wondered if he was still bothering the animals at the bar. I convinced my partner to drive over there to check it out. Sure enough, he was there preaching over his microphone.

My partner and I got out of the car. There was a small angry crowd forming around the preacher.

"He says to deny yourself. Pick up your cross daily and follow Him," the preacher said. "Jesus didn't say pick up your flesh, do whatever you want, please yourself, and be happy all the time! God does not want us to be happy living in sin! He wants us to be happy living in obedience to Him!"

My partner and I broke up the crowd since they were starting to get heated.

"Thank you, officers," the preacher's partner with the sign said.

The street preacher continued to speak. "See, this is what happens when you get drunk. Your judgment gets bad in front of the police officers, you go and put your paws on the preacher who's preaching the wisdom of God."

The crowd screamed at him and someone shouted, "**** the police!"

I approached the preacher. "Hey, you need to turn your speaker down," I told him. "It's too loud."

"I've already turned it down, officer. I'm not hurting anyone's ears."

"You're hurting my ears!" someone in the crowd shouted.

"If I'm hurting your ears, sir, why are you trying to get close to me?" the preacher asked him. "You can keep walking."

"You're inciting a crowd," I told the preacher.

"I'm not inciting a crowd. That's a lie," he said.

"Yes, you are," I said.

"I'm practicing my free-speech rights. Street preachers have the right to preach the gospel and if animals get offended, we have the right to be protected. That's why we have free speech. They were shouting f-words and things like that. How come you don't go after them?"

My partner came up to him. "You can keep preaching but you have to keep walking. You're obstructing traffic," he told the preacher.

"We're obstructing traffic?" he asked.

"Yeah. You're on a city walkway," he said. "Now everyone has to walk around you because you're blocking the walkway."

"We have the right to be on the sidewalk though," the preacher said.

"Yeah. You can be on the sidewalk. That's not a problem, but you have to keep moving because you're obstructing the right of way on the sidewalk with your bodies and sign.

"Do you see the animals walking around us? We're not obstructing them."

"Correct. They're walking around you. They can't walk right here. You're blocking them."

"They can still walk. We're not blocking the entire sidewalk. We have the right to be on sidewalks," the preacher said. "If I stand in one spot and practice my free speech, will I be arrested?"

"No," my partner said, "but you could be endangering the public by drawing a crowd."

"These clubs, officers, these clubs and bar owners, these are the guys who are responsible for endangering your lives every weekend. Not the Christians," he said into his microphone. "The Christians have to come out because of the bar owners. The Christians aren't the bad guys, Las Vegas. The Christians aren't the bad guys, city ordinance. We're not the ones endangering your safety and your life every weekend! The bar owners and the club owners that are pouring out alcohol and bringing in the sin in your city, they're the ones endangering your life! Why don't you give them a noise ordinance ticket for their bumping music? Why don't you give them a ticket for disturbing our peace and our God's peace?"

"Hallelujah!" the guy with the sign cheered him on.

"We're not the ones here to fight you!" the preacher continued. "We're the ones to help your city so that there's less fighting on the streets. We're trying to get them to stop drinking so there are fewer DUIs in your city. We're literally coming here to bless your city, to try and help your city, and you keep coming to us like we're the bad guys, like we're the noise problem. That bar is the noise problem! That bar is the safety hazard of Las Vegas! These clubs are your safety hazard. These clubs are endangering our lives, the officers' lives, the animals of this city's lives. We come out here because the clubs and bars are here. They are the problem! Why don't you cite the clubs? They're bumping the music, they're bringing the sin in! They're bringing the evil animals in! They're bringing the drunkenness! They're causing your car accidents late at night! They're causing your DUIs! They're causing your hangovers! They're causing animals to blackout! They're causing ambulances to come! And that's why we come! Because you say sin is legal in our land, Las Vegas! But if there's a preacher in the Word of God, we have to turn him down! But let the music go loud! This is a sickness in your mind, Las Vegas! I'm sorry, but you're sick in the head when you come against the preachers of God but you allow the servants of the devil to bring sin into your city! You're literally standing on the street because of the bar owners and the club owners, not because of the Christians! This is what the world has come to. The Bible says woe to him who calls good evil and evil good. Woe to him! The Bible says no thief, drunkard, fornicator, homosexual, or adulterer will enter the kingdom of God!"

The crowd started chanting, "Go home! Go home!"

"You are causing a disturbance," I told the preacher. "You are clearly not welcome. I will cite you for disorderly conduct if you don't move right now."

"For God so loved the world, guys-" the preacher started to say.

"What is your name?" I interrupted.

"Joshua," he said.

"Joshua what?"

"Just Joshua. I don't like to give out my surname in public."

"Well, Joshua, I'm going to ask you one more time to leave the area."

"I'm not gonna leave the area," he told me.

"If you fail to do so, you will be arrested."

The preacher continued to preach. "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son-"

I grabbed him and put handcuffs on him as the crowd cheered wildly. My partner helped me get the preacher to the car.