We went to Grace's house after church to eat. Sarah started making the food while Isaac went to change out of his suit. Grace and I sat on the couch and started watching a movie. She offered to let me choose which DVD I wanted to watch, but they were all chick flicks, so I had a hard time choosing. I didn't usually watch those types of movies. I liked to watch something with action in it. I finally talked her into choosing the movie, so she picked up the case for a movie called "The Notebook." While we were waiting for the previews to end, Isaac returned to the living room, standing in the doorway to the hallway where I couldn't see him.
He asked, "what are you watching?"
Grace put her knees on the couch to turn around to see him, "The Notebook."
"Matthew doesn't want to watch that," he said, "I'll go get a movie that he would like." He must have gone somewhere else in the house to get it because the movie stand was beside the television and he didn't go that way. He returned a minute later with a DVD case in his hand, "I bet he'll like this one."
As Isaac made his way to the television to put the movie into the DVD player, I saw that he had a prosthetic leg. He used his hands to bed the leg so that he could kneel and reach the DVD player. He started the movie, then sat in a recliner in the living room.
I didn't want to be silent through the previews, so I asked, "what happened to your leg?"
He looked at me and smiled, "well, back in Nom-" he started, but Grace interrupted him.
"Daddy, you were never in the war! Tell him the truth."
"I just wanted to make it sound like I was doing something heroic," he said, "but honestly, I wasn't. I was actually a victim. I was minding my own business one day. Me and Sarah were taking Grace to get some ice cream for getting straight A's on her report card. The traffic light I was coming up on was yellow. I could have made it through, but that was around the time Grace was supposed to get her learner's permit, so I didn't chance it trying to be a good influence on Grace. I waited until the light turned green again before I started moving. I didn't look both ways before I put the car in motion because the light was red for intersecting traffic. Someone in a fancy car must not have known what a red light meant though because I kid you not, he was going at least one hundred miles per hour when he ran the red light. He must have been racing, because there was another car that barely stopped. That guy didn't share any of the road stopping though. But the one boy hit our car in the driver side door. It sent us spinning down the highway until we finally came to a stop. Grace and Sarah got out of the car safely, thank God, but the door was caved in and pinned my leg between the door and the steering column. After the fire department got there, they said they could cut the door off of my leg, and they did, but a few days later, my leg kept getting worse. About a week after the accident, the doctors said that my leg would never be any help to me, and the best thing to do was to cut it off."
"Oh I'm so sorry," I said.
"Don't be sorry," he said, "It wasn't your fault."
That was my time to tell him. That was my time to tell all of them. My heart was beating out of my chest and I could not take it anymore! "Isaac," I said with a tremble in my voice.
"Yes?" He replied.
"Do you hate the man who did that to you?"
"I sure don't," he said, "I don't even know who he is. I pray for him every day that he would be convicted for what he did though, for his own good."
"Convicted?" I asked, "what's that mean?"
"It means that he feels so bad that he can't stand it, that he changes his ways and asks for forgiveness," he explained.
"From you?" I asked.
"If he ever gets the chance to," he said, "but mostly from God."
I decided then that I didn't have to tell them that it was me who hit them, I just had to tell God. The movie finally came on. It was my favorite movie ever, "The Fast and the Furious." It was a movie about racing. I slowly looked over at Isaac, who was propping his feet up to get comfortable. I looked back at the television. My heart started beating faster. I didn't think it could speed up any, but it sure did. I had to tell God what had happened!
I looked over at Isaac once more. He was already looking at me, so I didn't say his name to get his attention. I opened my mouth, about to say something, but Sarah yelled from the kitchen, "lunch!" Isaac and Grace both jumped up to run to the kitchen.
We all sat around the table with a dish of lasagna and a bowl of rolls in the middle of it. I grabbed a roll and began to chew.
Grace slapped me on the hand as I was about to take another bite. "We have to pray first," she said, then she grabbed my hand. Sarah's mom grabbed my other hand, and I felt a little awkward. I didn't know what was going on.
The three of them looked at their laps while Isaac said, "Dear God, we thank you for all you have done in our lives, from birth to death and trial to blessing. Everything that happens to us happens because you allow it to. We thank you for keeping a safe hand on us lately. We are always loving and trusting in you; in Jesus name we pray, amen." As soon as he finished, they all started reaching for the food. No one was holding my hand then. We all got situated with the right portion of food on our plates, then Isaac said to me, "since you asked me a question, can I ask you one?"
I said, "sure," thinking it would be a question about my life, but he asked what happened to my arm. I didn't want to tell him what really happened, so I quickly thought of something, "I was running through the woods behind my house last night, and I must have cut it on a tree. It's okay now though."
Sarah, Grace and Isaac looked at me for a minute. Isaac asked, "why were you running through the woods?"
"To catch my dog," I said, "he tried to run away."
"Uh-huh," Isaac said as he shook his head, "so you didn't cut it on a piece of metal in your garage?"
I had completely forgotten about that! Why did he have to ask me that question again? Why did I have to lie? What have I gotten myself into now? I had to change the subject fast before they started questioning other things, like the car wreck. I did have a question that never got asked earlier. "Who's God?" I asked. Everyone dropped their forks and looked at me. I was thinking that that was not the best thing I could have said, but I thought that maybe I should have known.
"God?" Isaac asked, "he's the most powerful man ever. He created you."
"Where does he live?" I asked. They kept staring at me. I felt like I was asking some stupid questions, but I really wanted to know.
"Heaven," he said.
"Where is that at? How do I get there?" I asked.
"Through and by the blood of Jesus Christ," he said proudly.
I sensed that he was giving me a stupid answer that time. I was supposed to go through the blood of some man to get to this place called heaven so I could talk to God? Isaac was being ridiculous with his answers. I felt like they were all making fun of me. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. I didn't want to cry in front of them, though, so I got up from the table and walked out of the house. I started walking down the road and got my phone out of my pocket to call Cody to pick me up.
