The Ecclesia

 One Morning in Paradise - pg 15 & 16

       Michael turns around and looks back toward the front door as he takes one step down, hoping to see Sarah through the storm door. She isn't there, or at least he couldn't see her, so he adjusts his hat and backs down the porch steps. 

       "Okay," he says, pointing with both hands outstretched, "I'll see you guys Saturday night." At that, he turns and walks toward the squad car. 

       "That boy looks like he could be bad news," John Phillips says, leaning forward in his rocking chair. 

       "I don't know," Emily replies as she watches the young man getting into officer Teller's car, "I get a sense that he has a good heart. I think we can work with him." 

       "I saw the way he and Sarah were looking at each other. It was the same look that Paul (Emily's husband) and I gave each other back when we were teenagers. I really believe it would be a big mistake to leave this situation hanging. I would hate to burst Sarah's bubble and have her harbor any ill feelings towards the "Ecclesia." It would be better to let this all play out, and if it works, then we've gained a convert. If not, then we can at least save Sarah." 

       "Well," John begins as he leans back in his rocker, "Sounds good, and I'm sure you know what you're doing. I'll leave it all up to you since you're so good at that kind of stuff." 

       "Okay. Thanks, Daddy. I'll start working on it right away. Sarah and I are going to be working together today, so I'll talk to her then. Do you have anything special you would like me to make?" 

       "You bet," John replies enthusiastically, "You can make some of that fantastic egg salad on whole-wheat toast." 

       "You got it, Daddy!" Then spinning on the ball of her foot, Emily walks back into the house. 

       The squad car comes to a halt in front of the flatbed truck, set up to pull Mr. Dietz's car from the ditch where it had come to rest after the accident. The roll-back truck sits behind Mr. Dietz's automobile with the bed tilted enough to cable the car out safely without having to reposition. 

       Officer Teller reaches toward the dashboard of his cruiser and turns on his emergency lights and beacons. 

"Morning, Ted," he says as he opens the rear door to let Michael out. 

       "Morning Bill," came the reply," What did he hit? A deer or something?" 

       "I don't know," replies the officer as he makes his way around to the front of the car, "but I'm going to try and find out. Don't move the car until I get some of that hair off the grill and conduct a quick investigation." 

        "Alright," the tow truck driver says. "How long do you think this will take?" 

"It shouldn't take too long answers the officer as he walks around the back of the squad car to open the door for Lenny before he doubles back toward the trunk. 

       Opening the back, Officer Teller retrieves a kit containing a plastic bag, latex gloves, and plastic tweezers inside. He tears open the bag and requisitions the gloves before turning to walk past the tow truck and around to the front of the battered car. 

       Donning the gloves, Bill digs through the kit for the tweezers and a press and seal plastic bag. Then removing a few hairs from a dent in the grill near the right headlight with the tweezers, he places them in the plastic bag and seals it shut. After closing the bag, the officer writes something on it and puts it back in the kit. 

       Officer Teller walks back to the patrol car, opens the door, and places the kit on the front seat. 

       "Mr. Dietz," Officer Teller calls out. 

       "Yeah!" replies Michael. 

       "Where was the object at when you hit it?" 

       "I think it was over there." Michael points to an area about ten paces in front of the police car, saunters over to the spot where he thinks the accident occurred, and takes up a position there. "Right about here."

       Officer Teller walks over to where Michael Dietz is standing and starts looking for any signs on the ground. He isn't exactly sure what he is looking for, but anything could be a clue. The constable sees a crushed beer can and a flattened fork crushed in the gravel, but nothing recent or out of  

  One Morning in Paradise - pg 17 & 18 

       "Now I know you say you didn't exactly see what it was because you were texting your brother, but I need you to tell me what you did as soon as the car ran off the road." 

       "Well," begins Lenny, "I dropped my cell phone and didn't know where it went, so I tried to get out of the car, but I had a hard time because the car was leaning over in the ditch. But eventually, I did make it out, and I looked back and saw something laying in the road." 

        "Did you get a good look at it while it was laying on the ground? " 

"No," replies Lenny, "I turned to help Mike to see if he was able to get out of the car. I was helping him out when he grabbed me and told me to run. I thought it was after us, and I just started running" 

"Is this about the place where you saw it?" 

       "Yeah," Lenny replies, "I think it is." 

       "And what about you, Mr. Dietz? What did you do right after the accident?" 

       "Well, I was looking for my cell phone while Lenny was trying to get out, but it was still a little too dark to see where it landed. Then after he got out, I climbed out to see what it looked like.” 

        "When I got out, I could see that it was getting up, so I grabbed Lenny and told him to run, and we started running for the farmhouse up the hill. I kept telling Lenny to run, and he kept up right behind me." 

       "So it was still alive when you last saw it?" the officer asks while writing something down on his pad.

        "Yeah, I didn't stop to look back to see which way it went, I just started running because I was afraid it might come after us, so I lit out as fast as I could for the house up there," Michael Dietz points toward the Phillips farmhouse. "I banged on the door, and a lady answered and let us in." 

       "Oh, great. Here comes my dad." Michael Dietz prepares himself for the worst as a primer grey 4x4 pickup truck drives up the road from the same direction he had come from earlier. 

       They can hear the truck before it appears around the bend and is all decked out with oversized tires and custom wheels with a six-inch lift kit as it rumbles up to where the group is standing. A tall man with jet black hair,  

  One Morning in Paradise - pg 19 & 20 

graying at the temples, gets out. As he approaches the trio standing in the road, he first looks at the officer, then his son, Michael, then at the car now tethered to the tow truck in preparation for extraction from the ditch. 

       "Dad! Dad! I hit a Bigfoot! You should have seen it. It looked just…" 

       "Are you Okay?" blurted out Mr. Dietz to his son, interrupting him in mid-sentence. 

       "Is he under arrest?" he asks, looking over at Officer Teller. 

       "No, I haven't found anything I could charge the boys with here. Technically, they were on their way to school at that time of the morning, so they apparently weren't violating curfew, and it wasn't a human, as far as I can determine, that they hit, so they're free to go. I'll have the car towed to your garage, Mr. Dietz. 

       "Okay, thanks, Bill," Mr. Dietz breathes a sigh of relief. 

       Mr. Dietz, a larger and older version of his son, Michael, walks over to the wrecked car to survey the damage. He watches as the vehicle is pulled slowly out of the ditch onto the bed of the truck. The car ascends onto the bed inch by inch, where the driver will tie it down in preparation for transport. He silently walks to his pickup as the two teenagers follow along, and without a word, they all pile in. 

       "Dad," Michael says, breaking the silence, "you should have seen it. It looked human. I looked right into his face, and I saw it plain as day." 

       "Okay, Mike," Mr. Dietz says sternly, "I don't want to hear it. There is no Bigfoot. I don't know what it was you plowed into, but you didn't hit a Bigfoot. You're letting your imagination run away with you." 

       "But Dad!" Michael starts to say. 

       "Let's just drop it," Mr. Dietz shouts, not letting the young Dietz finish. 

       "But Mr. Dietz, I saw it too," Lenny says, leaning forward from the crew seat, coming to Michael's defense. 

Mr. Dietz remained silent, shooting Lenny a stern glance in the rearview mirror, and Lenny shut up and slumps back in his seat. 

       As the scene at the bottom of the hill is wrapping up, Emily and Sarah are talking at the kitchen table when Paul, Emily's husband, walks through the back door carrying a black plastic garbage bag. 

Sarah is facing the door and sees him first. "Hi, Mr. Smith," she hails. 

       "Ladies!" Paul gleams. 

Paul is about 6 feet tall, with flaming red hair and deep blue eyes. He has an oval face with a short beard that is as red as his hair, and he speaks with a light but distinctive Scottish brogue. When Paul expresses himself, it is vibrant, although faintly raspy. Yet, no matter the case, he unquestionably has an opulent, infectious sense of humor that, it has often been said, can make even the dead laugh. Paul immigrated to the United States as soon as he finished high school in Scotland. 

       While he was attending Princeton, he became a US citizen, and that was where he met Emily for the first time. She wasn't a student; however, she was there distributing religious literature, which was prohibited, and it was when she was being escorted from the campus that he ran into her. They began talking and writing back and forth until persuaded to join the ecclesia, and eventually, they married. 

       "I brought yah some laundry, woman," he says playfully to Emily, "See that yah get it sparklin' white just how I like it, and take it easy on the starch this time. Last time yah could've used these towels as window shutters." 

       Emily smiles and gives a playful look back. "Now don't be gettin' yer kilt in a bunch," she says in her best Scottish impersonation, "who do yah think wears the pants in this family? " 

       "Whoa, woman yah cut me to the quick," Paul says, obviously feigning misery, "Just take me out at the knees, and chop off my head, and be done with it. ," 

       They all laugh for a minute, then Emily asks, "Are these the bloody towels?" 

       "Yes, they are," Paul replies, "A couple of em are soaked clean through. The others were used to clean up after the bloody mess. But if I know you, you can get em as clean as they were when yah brought em home from the store." 

       "You know I will," Emily responds.