Redemption at Miller Mountain

Chapter 9

Jovial looks in on Faith and sees she is sitting up in her bed, ear buds in her ears, listening to music. Jovial goes to her slowly, putting a hand on the bed to alert her to the fact that he's there. She takes the ear buds out of he delicate ears and says, "Who's' there?"
"Its just me, Sweetie. How are you feeling?"
"I'll live, I guess," her voice almost a whisper.
"There is a viewing for your mom tonight. Do you want to go?"
"What's the point, dad! I can't see her," She responds bitterly.
"I know, Sweetie, I just thought you might want to be there. Lots of our church family will be there supporting us."
"I'm never going to go to church again, Dad!"
     Jovial's eyes shoot straight up to his daughter as his spine stiffens and his heart rate jumps up.  "What do you mean you're never going to go to church again?"
"Just what I said! God took my mom. Why should I worship Him?" she spits out.
"Honey, God didn't take your mom!  Satan sent a man to take your mom. We need God more than ever to help us through this."
"No, Dad," tears streaming down her face. "God did this! He could have stopped it, but He didn't! I can't see! I'm blind! Why is God punishing me? What did I do to deserve this? Sobbing uncontrollably, she cries out, "I can't even see my mom at her funeral, Dad! Why is God so mean?"
"Aw, Honey," Jovial says as he takes his daughter in his arms, "No one else will see your mom either. It's going to be a closed casket. God didn't do this, Honey. Evil did this! that's how Satan takes good Christians away from God. He arranges bad thing to happen to test our faith." He continues to hold his baby girl as she cries.
     After getting Faith settled down and watching her fall asleep, Jovial goes out the front door to see Jack and Roger cutting the final board for the ramp.
"Ya'll do good work,' Jovial exclaims.
"We've been hard at it," Jack replies.
"Thank ya'll for doing this. It means a lot to us."
    With the final board in place, Roger picks up the tools and puts them away. He ambles back to the ramp where Jack and Jovial stand talking and he says, "Doc, I need to see Faith then I'm going home and get cleaned up for tonight. Is Faith coming?"
"No, son. She's not coming tonight."
"Who's staying with her?"
"Amy said she'd stay with her," Jack speaks out.
"I figure Amy wants to go to the viewing," Roger says. "How about I stay with Faith so Amy can go to the Viewing? I'd rather take care of Faith, Doc."
"OK, Roger. That's fine with me if you're sure."
"I'm sure. I just need to run home and get cleaned up first."
"You should have plenty of time, son," Jovial says.
     Roger gets in his truck and he heads to town. Arriving at home, Roger sees his dad's truck and sighs.  "This should be interesting," he thinks. Walking into the house, Roger goes to his room and gathers some clean clothes to wear after his shower. His dad walks through the door, anger filling his eyes.
"What are you doing, Boy?"
"Going to take a shower before going back to look after Faith while the Doc goes to the viewing," roger explains.
"No, you're not going anywhere after the way you talked back to me earlier!"
"I have to go, Dad. I already said I would."
     A hand comes out of nowhere and hits Roger on the side of his face. His left cheek feels like it's on fire. He stumbles to his right just a bit before regaining his balance.  He pushes his father with both hands in the chest, making him stumble over an ottoman. Roger takes advantage of his dad laying of his back and runs out of the room. Brad jumps up with the speed of a rattlesnake. He chases after Roger, running down the stairs, it takes only two steps before he grabs Roger's shirt collar just before he's out the door.  "Where you going, Boy? I'm not done with you yet."
     Roger is pulled to the floor by his collar. He feels the choking sensation around his throat as his dad pulls him to the floor. As soon as Roger hits the floor, he rolls to his left and jumps to his feet with both arms swinging. Brad is caught by surprise when a right cross connects with the force of a baseball bat to his left jaw, just below his temple. Brad crumbles and falls to one knee, stunned by the blow.
"I'm not so little anymore, dad!  I'm not going to take your beating anymore! You hit me, I hit back!  That's how it's gonna be from now on!"
"Get out of my house, Boy! Don't ever come back here!" Brad says from his position on the floor.
    Roger, filled with fear, anger, and pain, leaves his father's house.  Without any clothes or other possessions he heads to Hopeful Springs. Arriving just after dark, he knocks on the front door.  When the door opens, Jovial finds the boy admiring the ramp they had built earlier. Jovial notice Roger is in the same clothes he left in and sees that Roger has been crying at some point, because his eyes are red and swollen. 
"Are you OK, Roger?" Jovial asks his as he walks into the house.
"Yeah, I'm OK, Doc. I need a place to stay for a while though."
"You want to talk about it?"
"Not right now, Doc. I just need to process."
"OK. We have the small room in the loft of the barn, if you want. It has a bed room up there. It ain't much, but it oughta do."
"Thanks, doc. I'll take it."
"We'll clean it out tomorrow.  Tonight you can have the couch."
"Yes, sir. I'll take care of Faith while you're gone, don't worry."
"I ain't worried, son. You're a good kid."
     Roger nods and heads for Faith's room. He open the door and finds her sitting on the bead with a tear in her eye, after having overheard the conversation.