Spiritual War

CHAPTER 19

April 1

Sean was relieved to hear the sound of lawn mowers and bees buzzing, in the air.
Amy was delighted at the sight of beautiful pink and yellow flowers that swayed from left to right in the warm and gentle breeze.

Sean and his sister sat on the hill of their neighborhood's park, and stared at the beautiful green pasture in front of them, while the sun hit their skin, lightly.
Spring break had finally arrived and everything looked as good as new.

"Amy..." Sean started, as he gently leaned his head on her left shoulder. "What does the intersection of winter to spring, look like to you?"

Amy giggled softly at his question, but then stayed quiet for a little bit. After taking in a small sigh, she replied saying, "Our f- family then, and n- now..."

"Hmm. How come, if I may ask?"

Amy stayed silent and then leaned on her brother's shoulder and looked up to the sky. She stared at the drifting clouds, looking for a particular group of clouds that reminded her of a family.

After five to six minutes passed by, she pointed at the group of clouds that stood together. "Mommy, daddy, you, and then me."

Sean nodded his head at that, and then stared at the clouds until they drifted away and out of sight. Amy looked back at him and then shrugged.

After a moment or so, Mister and Misses Sawyer came to the park, and walked up the hill towards the two.
As they were doing so, Amy said once more, "Mommy, daddy, you, and then me. A happy family!"

Sean thought for a moment about what she meant by that, but still couldn't quite get the picture. Just then, Amy reached to her side, and plucked out a tiny yellow flower out of the ground. She handed it to him and then giggled softly.
"I love you, big brother..." She replied, silently.

Sean took ahold of the flower and then smiled softly at her.

"How's it going, you two?" Mr. Sawyer asked, as he and his wife finally made it to the top of the hill where their children were sitting at.

"Awesome!" Sean replied.

"Brilliant...!" Amy answered, spreading her hands up towards the sky.

"I'm glad!" Mrs. Sawyer replied, as she knelt down beside Mr. Sawyer, in front of their two children.

"So am I..." Mr. Sawyer added. "However... I hope that this news that we're going to give you two, will not leave you both hopeless and without a smile."

"What's going on?" Sean asked, straightening himself up and positioning himself to hear what his parents had to say.
Amy did the same thing, except she slumped back after a minute or two.

"Well, it's been a month since mom had lost her job, right?" Mr. Sawyer started. The two nodded in agreement.
"Even with working at my job, I'm barely getting paid enough because of all of my late days to work. Only dealing with Amy's medical bills and paying for her insurance.... and I spent more than five sleepless nights- only trying to deal with those things, but ended up being late to work for oversleeping which caused me to not come on time."

"So what does that mean? You're losing your job as well?" Sean asked, frightfully.

"I'm not losing it. I lost it." His dad corrected. "Which means that our whole family will remain unemployed for quite a while all the way up until we find another job, or make our own job by doing work for our neighbors."

"Honey, I said that babysitting or even cutting the grass for our neighbors isn't even enough to pay for Amy's hospital bill which is literally ninety-five thousand dollars!" Mrs. Sawyer confessed.

Both Amy and Sean looked at their father in dismay.

"Well, if we start now, what will be impossible?" He asked, smirking.

"I dunno..." Mrs. Sawyer, replied. She reached over to touch her daughter's face. "Just look at how ill she looks... we don't even have enough money to take her back to the hospital or to any type of specialist to even get her treated- even if we do work around the whole entire neighborhood. That money will literally not be enough."

"It's better than nothing." Her husband reassured to her, as he touched her hands and held them into his.

Sean shrugged his shoulders and then sighed deeply.
He looked over at Amy, who sat there without any type of expression on her face. However, he could see the pain that she was suffering deep down inside.

"I think that Amy'll be alright." Sean spoke up. "I know that at the beginning, we declared everything- including our lives, into the hands of the Lord. So, why doubt anything?"

Mister and Misses Sawyer both looked at each other and smiled.

"You're right, son." Mr. Sawyer said, as he got up on his two feet, and helped Mrs. Sawyer up as well. "Let's go for whatever it is that will help every one of us."

***

Amy stayed over at a nearby neighbor's house while the rest of the family went out knocking on doors and asking if anyone needed their lawn to be trimmed.

"Wait a second..." One old crazy cat lady said. She had a pipe in the left side of her mouth and held her door wide open as her cats started crawling all over her head and feet. "You're suggesting I pay y'all about fifteen dollars to trim my yard, yet spring just started and my grass hasn't even fully grown yet?!! I will report y'all to the neighborhood maintenance and security- for trying to destroy my slowly growing yard!!! ....Think this is." With that, the old lady slammed the door in their faces.

"That lady was the worst out of everyone else that we've confronted.." Mr. Sawyer admitted, mumbling under his breath.

"Ya think..." His wife replied, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Shouldn't we consider asking people if they'd like for us to babysit their children- or even their pets?" Sean suggested.

Mr. Sawyer groaned and then said, "I'm tried... I'm not walking on these sore feet of mine, any longer..."

***

Amy on the other hand, was drawing pictures with crayons and a paintbrush, at the Ortega's dining table.
Mrs. Ortega was sitting right across from her. They were the only ones in the house, while everyone else was out and working.

Mrs. Ortega was close friends with Mrs. Sawyer back when they went to high school together. She and the rest of the family, used to take care of the Sawyer kids back when they were younger and their parents were employed.

Amy drew a picture of her family, and then another picture of the sun and the sky. She seemed to enjoy every bit of it.
Mrs. Ortega was quite pleased with what she was seeing.

"Where do you learn how to draw like this?" Mrs. Ortega asked.

"Jesus." Amy replied, silently. "Jesus h-helps me with e- everything I d- do, Mrs. Or- Ortega."

She smiled at her and watched her as she finished drawing and painting her pictures.