Second Honeymoon

Chapter 24

IT WASN’T ANYTHING I read.

It was something I couldn’t read.

What had been dog-eared was a section in the Old Testament, the Song of Moses, from the book of Deuteronomy. A passage was missing—literally cut out from the middle of the page—right between Deuteronomy 32:34 and 32:36.

What was 32:35?

Maybe if I’d paid more attention in Sunday school, when I was an altar boy at Saint Augustine’s Church, I’d know. But I was the kid in the back of the room, staring at the clock and counting the minutes until they served the cookies and lemonade.

So off I went. A tornado from room to room.

I knew there was a King James Bible somewhere in the house. A beautiful one, too. Leather-bound, gilt-edge paper. It had belonged to Susan. John Jr. read from it at her funeral. I still remember how brave he was, holding back the tears so he could finish his passage.

“Mom wouldn’t want me to cry,” he told me afterward.

That’s where I looked first, his room. The bookcase next to his desk was too obvious. I mean, what thirteen-year-old kid puts something where it belongs, right? After scanning the shelves, I checked the closet. Then the small table by his bed. Then under his bed.

Max’s room? I went down the hall and did the same routine, checking everywhere. I felt like one of those parents in those after-school specials, rifling through his kid’s room searching for his stash of weed. Of course, Max was only ten. There wasn’t even a stashed-away Playboy to be found.

Or a Bible.

I kept looking, determined as hell to find it. This was strange, after all. Someone was trying to tell me something, and whoever it was had gotten cute about it.

Was cute even the word? It depended on the message, didn’t it?

I searched everywhere in the guest room, otherwise known as Marshall and Judy’s room. I went back downstairs and looked in the den. Finally I remembered. Duh!

I’m the one who had it.

I’d put it in a box of Susan’s things that I kept under our bed, the side she slept on, no less. Dr. Kline would have a field day with that one, wouldn’t he?

I hightailed it into my bedroom. Pulling out the box, I put on emotional blinders. I didn’t want to get caught up in the other items in it, the keepsakes. That had blubbering, crying mess written all over it.

Thankfully, the Bible was right on top. No digging necessary. I sat on the bed, turning to Deuteronomy and the Song of Moses.

Scrolling down the page with my index finger, I stopped on the missing passage, 32:35. I read it once, then twice.

To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence;

their foot shall slide in due time:

for the day of their calamity is at hand,

and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

I read it over again a few more times, although I didn’t know why. Maybe I was hoping that I was missing something, that there was a different interpretation.

There wasn’t.

No matter how you sliced it, I was being threatened. Someone had it out for me.

I think I need that other beer.