Jun P. Espina 19 min read
Written on July 28, 2022
[Note: Short Story. General Fiction. Invented Story. It’s not you if your name is mentioned.]
* * * 6:00 a.m. Before the Trip * * *
Yetta Brecken had completed all preparations the day before their family camping trip. By early morning, Chesil, her husband, checked the tires of their brand new 4×4 pickup truck and then announced their departure for the camping site 100 kilometers away from their home.
Their lone child, Einar, raced in the opposite direction of the car in front of them. As a ten-year-old affluent boy tested out the feel of his buckaroo outfit, he jumped like a fawn and then rolled on the grassy ground.
“My son, behave like you’re fifteen. We’d be camping in the wilderness.” Yetta had never felt more alive.
She ordered her housemaids to load the car with their food, camping gear, and various other items, while Chesil briefed the two guards who would escort them.
The Breckens were known for their good looks, brilliance, and wealth. Both Chesil and Yetta graduated with honors, and Einar showed a high I.Q. at a very young age.
Their two maids, Demi and Dakota, were with them, and they occupied the cargo part of the vehicle together with the two guards.
Yetta texted her mother, Sabina:
They were all set after Chesil called his Executive Secretary, Lilith Clay, for last-minute instructions.
So, he turned on the car.
“Wait, let’s pray first,” Yetta suggested.
“What? Can’t I trust my brand-new car?”
“Godless jerk.” Her forehead creased. She turned to Einar.
“What did you say, fake Christian? You barely pray?” Chesil bit back his irritation. He drove off down the highway toward Pikk.
At 8:30 a.m., they reached their destination, a large river called Pikk that spanned a virgin forest.
They positioned their tents under a huge acacia tree standing on an elevated place around three meters above water level and ten meters away from the riverbank.
Yetta and Chesil remained silent for the entire trip. But as Yetta climbed out of the car, she heard the hooting of the owls and the “caw-uh, caw-uh” of the crows, and they lifted her spirit.
“Happy Birthday, Honey,” Yetta smiled and gave Chesil a peace sign.
The piercing ooooh ooooh aaaah of the monkeys and Yetta’s pretty smile just mended Chesil’s offended ego.
Einar was happier than the rest, as it was his first experience away from the noise and boring routine of city life.
The maids and guards prepared their lunch. Most of their recipes were grilled and raw.
Einar grabbed the hands of his parents and led them to the river. Before they could have changed to their swimming trunks, they found themselves already wet as they chased Einar, jumping and performing all his tricks in the water in no time.
* * * Pikk’s Might * * *
It was Chesil’s 30th birthday, so Yetta seized the opportunity to greet her husband with a kiss. After their brief romance, they turned their attention to Einar again, but he was gone. The strong river current drove him downstream.
“Einar, Einar, Einar!”
No answer.
Chesil sprinted to the tent and ordered the maids and guards to help find the drowning Einar. But Yetta wasted no time as she swam downstream with her mother’s instinct to save her only child at all costs.
* * * Chesil, the Man of Reason * * *
Chesil was the only son of wealthy parents. At age 30, he was already the CEO of three corporations. He was a rational man and an atheist. When his parents died in a car accident, he just shrugged. “There’s an end to life,” he commented and never cried.
He knew nothing in this life except giving orders to his maids and employees. “You do this, you do that . . ..” He was bossy. He would ask his secretaries to carry everything to his office, even a piece of paper.
He was on a pedestal, untouchable.
“Emotionalism is bad for business,” he muttered. “I weigh my options. Reason is king.”
As CEO, truckloads of company problems and challenges seemed to harass him daily. But Chesil was always strong-minded. “It’s just business.” It was his common justification when his judgment would fail.
When his parents died, his relatives noticed he was a cold 25-year-old guy, as if nothing had happened to his heart—no grief, no mourning, no sense of loss in his system!
One evening, Einar experienced convulsions because of a high fever. Yetta rushed him to the hospital, but Chesil never showed up, as his board meeting was more important.
Reason was his God. But it made him irrational.
* * * Flirting, Lilith’s Major Talent * * *
Chesil’s lovely secretary, Lilith Clay, was well aware of Chesil’s complete reliance on others because of the power of his money. Along with this perceived weakness, Lilith showed her boss she could be robotic if that was what he wanted. She always made his day since she always flirted with him as if sex was her highest talent. She will undress before him if he says.
Chesil was a rational man until a young and beautiful girl came to seduce him.
* * * Yetta’s Waning Christianity * * *
“Yetta, it’s time to cook, but wash the dishes first.” Sabina Reese, her mother, had entrusted her with everything, from cooking to feeding her siblings. It was her upbringing to take charge and never rely on others. It was how poverty molded her.
At some time, Yetta refused to attend school for two weeks while in high school when her mother got sick with whooping cough. She had served Sabina and borrowed cash from the relatives for her mom’s hospitalization.
Her mother was a devout Christian and exceptionally prayerful since she experienced God in her routine bout with poverty.
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,” Yetta had memorized her mother’s favorite verse in Job 1:21, “And naked I shall return there.” She had complete dependence upon God, like her mom in her younger years.
But when the atheist millionaire, Chesil Brecken, became her husband, she neglected church and Bible study. The authenticity of her Christian faith became Chesil’s favorite sarcasm.
* * * Panic-Ridden * * *
“Einar, Einar, Einar!” Yetta became hysterical. She cried, shouted, and swam, but the current was strong and Einar could have been driven away so fast.
Or he could have hit his head on a rock and become unconscious and then drowned to death.
“Lord God,” Yetta prayed. She felt God revive her faith. Now, her Christianity seems to have wired her again to believe in God’s intervention.
“Never lose hope. Never give up. Only trust in the Lord. I saw God’s helping hand in mom’s life.” Yetta was frightened down to the soles of her feet as she babbled her Christian tag lines.
It was around 3:00 p.m., and Yetta was already four kilometers downstream amid the thick forest. Einar remained lost.
* * * Cold Forever * * *
The two maids and guards returned to the tent and reported to Chesil that they hadn’t found both the mother and child.
For almost five hours, Chesil spent his time contacting the police and all his other contacts, but he failed because the place was a dead spot, and he forgot to bring an improvised mobile phone signal booster.
“Are your phones working, guys?” Chesil remained cool as he gathered information from his maids and guards.
As a logical man and an atheist, he returned home against the reins of his conscience. His heart wailed—but he held back his tears—for he was a successful entrepreneur and he thought emotionalism was always a bad principle.
I need a Plan B… to bring the entire police force to the river tomorrow. He thought. I could not weep over something beyond my control.
* * * Love Propels Her Forward * * *
It was around 5:00 p.m., and Yetta was around ten kilometers away from their camp. The strong current washed her out downstream after she hugged the driftwood. She did not know that Chesil and their companions had already returned to the city. After swimming toward the riverbank, she sat on a rock and pondered her options. She believed Einar was still alive since he was smart and always used his common sense. So she vowed never to return home without Einar by her side.
The first thing she did was to look for a safe place for the night. The forest was thick and vibrating with the singing of the happy creatures it sheltered and fed. As a farm girl, she was used to the creepy sounds of birds and snakes. Her revived faith in God gave her hope and courage, and her love for Einar kept her moving.
She found a tree standing around three meters from the ground to its first branch. It had a crown of thick leaves, and its abundant branches and twigs could easily support her. She began by deciding which branch she would sleep on that night.
She removed her blue denim jeans and sweatshirt to air-dry them on top of the tree, then she ate a couple of ripe guavas nearby before going to sleep.
* * * Einar—Left to Fend for Himself * * *
Einar stayed afloat, as he knew how to swim when the river’s strong current pushed him downstream. They had a swimming pool, and the water could not terrify him. Around three kilometers downstream, he got out of the river as the current died out when it reached a certain place.
He got out of the river at around 10:00 a.m. It was his first time in the forest alone. He sat down on a rock to cry and called his mom. Sensing he was lost; he prayed the prayer his mom taught him. Then he wandered around, looking for something to eat.
Around five hundred meters away from the riverbank, he noticed the birds singing and buzzing around a tree. They were noisy as if feuding for food. The terrain was not too steep, so he strolled with a stick in his right hand to help him check where to drop his next step. Dry leaves covered the forest’s ecosystem. Einar did not want to fall and get hurt. He measured his steps.
Reaching the tree, he noticed plenty of yellow fruits on the ground the size of bell peppers. It tasted like a sweet apple mixed with lemon juice. He was hungry, so he ate it and picked up some more for his next meal. He returned to the rock where he stayed.
“Mom, Dad, where are you?” He kept crying over and over.
At around 3:00 p.m., he felt sleepy. His wet clothes were already dry. He found a group of rocks where he could hide. So, he crawled inside and slept.
He awoke at around 7:00 p.m. and could see nothing but darkness and flashing fireflies. The weird sounds in the forest during the night shook him like a leaf. He shouted “mommy” at the top of his voice, but only the birds and other creatures could hear him. In the middle of the forest, he was alone. He trembled for an hour until he fell asleep again.
Yetta awoke from a terrible dream seven kilometers away. Had she not woken, she would have fallen as she cried in her sleep. She dreamt that her beloved son, Einar, was eaten by a dark forest creature. She sat down and prayed for around three hours until she felt sleepy again.
By morning, CEO Chesil Brecken brought police officers to comb the river and the forest. But after twelve hours, they could not find Einar and Yetta. So, he made it clear to the authorities that his family had gone missing, and that everything was an accident. The officers entered the information into the public record and the news about Yetta and Einar took the headlines and social media by storm.
* * * Sabina Has Gone Nuclear * * *
Yetta’s Christian mother, Sabina, spoke haltingly when she learned about the accident. Her voice was thick with fear. Yetta was her only brilliant and attractive daughter, and she could not accept Yetta’s sudden death.
“Demi, give me the exact location,” and she hung up.
In her distress, Sabina balled her hands into fists and headed to the Pikk with her husband. As they trusted in God’s help, they committed to praying by the acacia tree every day until they met Yetta and Einar again.
I’m a prayer extremist. I won’t easily give up.
* * * Chesil’s Rationalism Failed Him * * *
Almost two weeks had passed, and everyone at Chesil Brecken’s Corporate Tower assumed Yetta and Einar were already dead. Lilith was busy gathering police updates about the Yetta/Einar Brecken case. Chesil already ordered his lawyers to prepare all the needed papers to move forward legally after the legal determination of his wife and son’s deaths.
As always, Chesil was logical. He did not want to have qualms about what was beyond his power. Lilith supplied his sexual and emotional needs.
“Yetta and Einar were just a bad dream,” Chesil convinced himself.
He was cold. Thanks to his atheism and lack of empathy.
One evening, Chesil returned home with his eyes staring blankly at the floor as he walked toward his room. He left Lilith alone at the restaurant after she asked him something touching: What if they are still alive and will show up out of the blue?
The unemotional and methodical Chesil suddenly opened his eyes to such a possibility, and he could not face it. He knew he did not shave the forest to look for his family. He knew he had not shown his deep love and concern for them.
All he told himself was that he was rational, not emotional.
What would he feel if it happened to him?
Sensing Chesil’s troubled heart, Lilith followed him.
“I’m sorry. I asked the wrong question. Please forgive me,” Lilith cried.
Chesil embraced and kissed her and asked for her forgiveness for having left her alone at the restaurant.
“No problem, you’re always my boss, Sir.”
And they got down and dirty.
* * * As a Sick Dog * * *
Yetta felt so hungry one day and did not have enough strength to forage for fruits. She miscalculated her food supply. The last fruit tree she took a meal from was a few kilometers away. She could not waste her time returning to it. The thought of Einar drained all the strength that she had left. So she looked for a tree or rock where she could sleep since her temple headache was just unbearable.
She slept on a rock under a tree like a sick dog. After two hours, she woke up feeling cold and shaking. Her fever was high; she could hardly move.
Hunger drove away her sanity. She could not think of ways to scour for food. She didn’t have a knife; she didn’t know how to fish, and she couldn’t make fire.
She crawled to the river nearby to drink. She remembered the benefits of drinking water. As she surveyed her surroundings, she saw a wild pineapple around two meters away from her position. A third of it had already been consumed, possibly by birds or foxes. “It is ripe,” she muttered. She grabbed it and broke it with a rock. She ate pineapple juice and pulp that day, saying, “Thank You, Jesus.”
She returned to sleep, and after an hour, she felt better. She resumed her search for Einar with one lesson in her heart: Always have food along the way.
* * * Goal Attained * * *
After almost two weeks, Einar realized he had no parents to depend upon. He must survive. So he looked for other fruits since he ate the same fruit all the time.
He found something attractive, so he ate it. But it was so acidic that his stomach could not handle it. He suffered from loose bowel movements that developed into diarrhea until he could no longer stand. So he peed and pooped in his pants. His eyes were semi-opened but he saw nothing. “Mommy,” he muttered.
Yetta combed the 500-meter radius from the riverbank to the interior of the forest, much like pushing every little rock to check for freshwater crabs. She was meticulous, calling Einar’s name on every tree and bush in the forest. Currently, she was just less than a kilometer away from her dying son. Einar was dehydrated, and he did not know it.
“Einar, Einar, Einar . . ..” Yetta cried and prayed. She was going crazy, eating less and less every day.
After half an hour, Einar showed up out of the rock and shouted his loudest “Mommy” before he fell to the ground, unconscious. It was 4:00 p.m.
Yetta heard Einar. It’s a miracle! Happiness washed over her. Then she breathed hard and sprinted in his direction, only to find him unconscious and smelling so badly.
“Einar, my son; Einar, my son—thank You, Jesus.” It was almost too much happiness to bear. Yetta embraced Einar and kissed him.
She noticed the wet poop on his pants, so she carried him to the river, washed him, and poured water into his mouth gingerly. Then she covered him with her sweatshirt as she left his stinky clothing by the river.
Einar had lost 50% of his weight after over a week in the forest alone, so she carried him on her shoulders. She walked three kilometers more and there she found the acacia tree, her only landmark to return home.
* * * I’m Not Finished Praying Yet * * *
“Sabina, it’s 3:00 p.m., it’s time to leave,” Yetta’s father said. “The driver of the car we’ve rented demanded extra pay.”
“Let him wait. I’m not done praying yet.”
Then Sabina faced the river and resumed shouting, hoping Yetta could hear her.
“Yetta, Mom’s here . . ..” Sabina’s constant loud call of Yetta’s name had already calmed the monkeys and birds. Her ceaseless screams had eventually merged into the habitat of the forest creatures.
She would act weird all the time by the river, Pikk, out of her distress. Her faith in Christ’s intervention had already bordered on the edges of fanaticism.
But God-ordered events still happen by faith. She thought.
* * * Marvellous * * *
“Mommy,” Einar spoke for the first time.
Yetta stopped and put Einar down as happiness glowed inside her. Water helped.
Einar regained consciousness after 15 minutes. Yetta placed her hand on her son’s forehead to check his temperature, then brushed his messy hair with her hand. She hugged and kissed Einar before giving him some fruit from her meager stash of fruit wrapped in leaves.
She kissed him once more and told him to pray. After lifting Einar onto her shoulders, she resumed her walk. She could sense her proximity to their camp tree on the opposite bank of the river.
As they got closer to their camping landmark, Yetta heard someone calling her name. She stopped and listened closely. She experienced a spark of wonder. Her body, hungry and worn out, found a new source of power. But the trickling noise and roar of Pikk blended into the human voices she heard. Am I hallucinating?
They reached their landmark, so Yetta sat Einar on a rock and gave him fruit again and some water. The warmth from Yetta’s body seemed to have helped strengthen Einar. She turned around, looking for a vine or something she could use to bind Einar onto her back, as she would swim to the other side of the river.
When they reached the acacia tree, Yetta noticed a few plastic water bottles. Someone must have been here a few minutes ago. Was Chesil here?
Yetta covered Einar with dried banana leaves. As the rain came and the beats of its drumming got louder, she formed an umbrella out of taro leaves so she could walk down the muddy road and not wait for the rain to stop. It was 5:00 p.m. and thick rain clouds covered the sky. But Yetta was interested in the vegetable garden along the road she noticed during their trip toward Pikk.
“Einar, sweetie, I’m gonna carry you again by my shoulders. We’d be eating some lettuce in a few minutes.”
The rain had just cleaned the lettuce on the vegetable farm, so Yetta took some and they ate it as she strolled back down the slippery road back to civilization.
Around three kilometers down the road, Yetta noticed a car that was stuck in the mud. It seemed someone was pushing the car, so Yetta raced to catch up.
The rain had just stopped, but the two men working on the stranded car did not notice her arrival.
“Anything I can help?” Yetta asked.
“Yeah, push the car.”
So, Yetta put Einar on the ground and helped, hoping they would give them a ride.
After a few pushes, the car roared and got out of the mud successfully. It was dark, and nobody cared that Yetta, who was wearing a taro-leaf hat, looked scary and wild, and Einar, like a bundle of firewood.
“Come on in,” the driver said.
“Einar, come.” Yetta, in her excitement, forgot that she had wrapped her son with dried leaves like a pig.
Upon hearing the word “Einar,” Sabina woke up and yelled a deafening “Einar…”
Her father recognized Yetta at last, as Sabina climbed out of the car hastily and cried: “Yetta, it’s a miracle, a miracle, thank You, God.”
Yetta hollered at fever pitch, “Mama!” Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Thank you, Mama; thank You, God!”
Inside the car, Sabina suddenly fainted when Yetta shared how she rescued Einar.
“Drive straight to the nearest hospital. I’m gonna double your price,” Yetta ordered the driver while massaging the head and arms of her mom. After a while, she clothed Einar with her father’s jacket as she prayed silently for her mom’s recovery.
Then Sabina woke up and said: “Am okay now. Aging, over-excitement, blood pressure, whatever.”
“Mom, calm down,” Yetta said.
“Yetta, text no one. Lilith’s already living in your house. We’ve video evidence.” Rage blended into Sabina’s voice.
“Easy mom, God saved Einar, and that’s all I need for now.” Yetta feared her mom would pass out again.
I hate you, Chesil. Yetta felt a wave of sick anger but never showed it for her mother’s sake.
“My daughter, your husband never spent a single minute in the forest looking for you and Einar. He was cold as ice,” Sabina cried.
Yetta ground her teeth and closed her eyes.
* * * Chesil & Lilith to Marry in Haste
“Do you love me, Ches?” Lilith asked.
“Why did you ask that?”
“Because it’s time for us to settle down?”
“Are we allowed to by law?”
“Yes, we’ve records that Yetta and Einar were dead.”
“Okay, let’s have a secret wedding.”
“Why secret?”
“You know, social media is very complicated.”
“Okay, if that’s what you want. When?”
“In three weeks. Let our lawyers do the paperwork. I’ll ask my friend, a judge, to solemnize our marriage here at our house.”
Demi and Dakota texted Sabina about Chesil’s coming wedding. So Sabina instructed them to capture everything by video.
Yetta and Einar have already regained their strength, so it’s time to go home.
“When will you go home, Yetta?” Sabina asked.
“Before the wedding.”
* * * Inner Anguish * * *
At Chesil Brecken’s Corporate Tower, Chesil crashed to the floor, unconscious, two weeks before his wedding to Lilith. She brought him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.
He returned home and asked Lilith to give him time alone to face his health struggles. So Lilith returned to her apartment.
Chesil battled his conscience for weeks, but he could not stifle it. To ease his inner suffering, he invited Lilith into his home, but she exacerbated the situation. It was absurd and sort of problem answered by another problem.
Chesil’s rationalism suffocated him. He fought against the power of his love for Yetta and Einar, but he lost.
Lilith’s company just confirmed how deranged he had become because of his atheism. His health suffered because of his ongoing battle with his subconscious mind. He couldn’t stand the mental encroachments of his love for his family.
I’m sick and confused. His head bowed, his hands folded on his back, as he sauntered into his immense mansion house. His self-confidence, which was once girded with his atheistic arrogance, became an aura of gloom.
He sat on a carved concrete bench on his lawn and dialed a friend from the atheist community.
“Hi, Bro. I think God exists, and He wanted to punish me.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’ve got colon cancer, stage four.”
“I don’t think so,” argued Fidel. “Cancer is proof that if God exists, He is a terrible god, a god of cruelty, without love, allowing cancer even to innocent children. He’s not worthy of our adoration.”
Chesil closed his eyes as he tried to empty his mind. Then he saw Yetta and Lilith as beauty contestants in his subconscious. He did not move; he just weighed their strengths and weaknesses. To his surprise, he gave Lilith a score of one out of ten and gave Yetta nine.
“Why should I marry Lilith? Why should I give all my money to her, when she’s nothing compared with Yetta, who’s more beautiful, humble, brilliant, prayerful, and optimistic?
“Why should I marry Lilith, the gold digger?
“Where has my proud sense of logic gone? Now I’m going to die. What must I do?”
Chesil texted Lilith.
Lilith smashed her phone on the table. She called her lawyer to prepare how she could inherit Chesil’s wealth, given her signed marriage registration. Second, how she could make tons of money out of a “breach of promise.”
Lilith was already the little CEO of Chesil Brecken Corporation. She had dozens of contacts to pin Chesil down before his death.
At the office the following day, Lilith brought her lawyer to convince Chesil to carry out the wedding as scheduled.
It annoyed him, but he wanted to play Lilith’s game to erase all doubts.
Knock, knock, knock…
“Ches, can I speak with you?” Lilith smiled. “I asked a friend to help us with our marriage registration.”
“Let him speak.” Chesil was cold.
“I’m Attorney Smith. My client asked me to show you the benefits of the solemnization of your marriage.”
“It’s none of your business. It’s a private matter. After 90 days, the marriage registration would be void unless solemnized.”
“Yes, Sir, but ‘breach of promise’ could be a problem.”
“I’ve got the money for that. But first off, I would let my lawyers exhaust my options, since the so-called marriage registration could be a setup to siphon off my money.
“My wife does not have a death certificate.”
Atty. Smith bowed and left, and Lilith followed him outside.
“Lilith, do you have a death certificate?”
“No.”
“You’ve got a big problem. Mr. Brecken would find you a gold digger.”
Lilith forgot about the marriage for the moment and took care of Chesil, who was yearning for a woman’s love and attention. It was her Plan B.
The day after…
Knock, knock, knock…
“Morning, Ches. I promise I won’t talk about our marriage again. It’s all up to you. I’m sorry, but everything has become so clear to me now. Here’s your schedule for your first chemo.”
“Come again to my place. I miss you.”
“Cool, tonight.” She smiled and left.
After breakfast, Chesil told Lilith to manage the business, since he had to do something else.
* * * Conscience-Stricken * * *
Chesil was already at the acacia tree by the river Pikk by 8:30 a.m. He would sit at the plastic table he provided himself, and then weep like a wounded prince. For hours, he would ask Yetta and Einar for forgiveness. He had never cried before, but his pain was too heavy to bear. He had lost his family, and after a few weeks, he would also lose his life to cancer. All his atheistic principles crumbled to pieces. He realized some life events would just come without reason. That God exists dawned on him.
Reason must surrender to faith.
His bottle of expensive whisky was his only friend. He would visit the acacia tree every day without shaving and bathing. He would cry there alone, talking to the spirits. It was his version of repentance.
One evening, Chesil drove back to his home from the acacia tree. He ran into Lilith at the gate to their mansion. As a result, they walked to their room together.
Lilith noticed Chesil was less drunk than the previous days, but he looked pale and unkempt, like a homeless man. His grandeur as a wealthy CEO left him.
Chesil could not open the door to their room, so he called up Demi and Dakota.
“What happened to my room, Demi?”
“Ma’am Yetta and Einar are inside, Sir, and didn’t want you to enter after she saw Ma’am Lilith’s belongings, Sir.”
Chesil dropped to the floor, unconscious again. He had a panic attack and fainted, but Lilith fled quickly outside the mansion after hearing the maids.
Dakota called the guards and ordered them to put Chesil in the guest room while Demi called up his private doctor.
By morning, Sabina visited Yetta with the three lawyers they paid for working on Chesil’s adultery case.
Before meeting the lawyers, Chesil begged Yetta and Einar, through Demi and Dakota, to allow him a little more time to explain himself. Einar wailed horribly. He begged his mom to allow his father inside.
Yetta fought the chaos of her rage, but God saved Einar. “Lord, give me wisdom.”
Knock, knock, knock.
She opened the door as Einar held her left hand.
Chesil entered sheepishly as a guilty defendant before the judge. His fatigued eyes clumsily scanned his starved and weakened wife and son before he knelt with tears streaming down his cheeks. In his shame, his lips trembled. He could not speak a single word. He gained courage after a few seconds, twitching his mouth. “I have stage 4 cancer. Can’t you guys just forgive me? Here’s my chemo prescription.”
Shock. Yetta’s eyebrows rose, and pity softened her heart. Chesil’s ridiculously rumpled appearance, like a wet cat, points to a genuine inner struggle. Together with Einar, they embraced, kissed, and forgave him.
Yetta then asked her mom to send the lawyers back to their homes, and that she would pay them for their services.
“I withdraw the case,” she said.
Yetta insisted they were Christians and God would not be happy if they pinned down a dying man.
Sabina crinkled her eyes. But she trusted Yetta’s judgment as a Christian.
Forgive a dying man. Sabina left and dismissed the lawyers.
Yetta sought a second opinion from the best cancer doctor before Chesil’s first round of chemotherapy. Lord Jesus, please forgive Chesil and heal him.
At the hospital’s laboratory, Yetta told Chesil and Einar to wait for her on their seats, as she would get the lab findings. Yetta closed her eyes and prayed tenderly for Chisel’s recovery.
After a while, Yetta returned with the lab docs in her hand. “Honey, let’s go to our new doctor for the interpretation of these lab results.”
The doctor’s clinic was just a typical one-door room, but Yetta noticed many patients waiting for their turn.
“Your husband’s case was a misdiagnosis,” the doctor said. And turning to Chesil, he continued: “You experienced a severe panic disorder. It would leave you after clearing up your intense fear.” The doctor prescribed an anti-anxiety medication and left it to his secretary.
As great happiness shimmered inside Chesil, he hugged Yetta and kissed her, and said, “Thank you.”
“Thank Jesus our Lord, not me,” she replied.
Chesil realized how good God was to his wife. He even listened to Yetta’s prayer for him. He followed Jesus, and after a brief Christian session, he submitted to water baptism.
In less than a year after Yetta’s rescue by her mother, Chesil Brecken became the best husband and father in the community. His businesses performed better than ever before. Trusting in God had helped him excel.
Atheism is a mental disorder. He loved to share his new philosophy—and share it often.
READ ALSO: The Atheist Billionaire’s Road to Faith
