Solutions: The Dilemma for Men - James Gerard (read out loud books .txt) 📗

a lot better now.”

 

“Thank you again for all your help.  But if you don’t mind me asking, I’d like to know what are you helping me from exactly?”

 

Emily shook her head then smiled broadly.  “I don't think I have ever met anyone like you.  You're sort of...sort of funny and sad at the same time.  Sort of helpless and clumsy too.  Rather pathetic," she laughed.  "But I rather have a weakenss for the pathetic type.  Now, what I am helping you from ou’ll find out shortly.  I’m taking you somewhere for that answer.”

 

Emily took Louis by the hand and the two strolled out of the building and walked down the long flight of stairs leading down to a lighted street.  Many people, all wearing assorted combinations and styles of black and white clothing, were already walking in the same direction they were headed.  In a way it reminded Louis of work back in the Village where all shift workers promptly began and ended their portion of the day’s work and arrived and left together at the same time.  However, those he saw were spread out from another.  Some were walking alone while others walked in small groups.

 

Just thinking about the Village made Louis a little bit homesick.  The daily routine, repeated over and over again, was known just about to the exact second.  Here, walking down the road with Emily, he had no idea what would happen once they arrived to wherever.

The Secrets we Keep

Louis and Emily strolled down a stretch of road that led to a sector housing the city’s workers, each carrying a box she had taken from the eatery.   Louis was excited by what Emily had said about the contents in the boxes.  One contained a desert she called a chocolate cake.  She said it contained the same ingredient that gave the drink enjoyed by Louis its distinctive flavor.  The other too contained a chocolate cake but was intended for one of the security officers guarding the sector’s main entryways.  Emily explained it was a more a less a token bribe to turn away any suspicions that otherwise would cause alarm amongst any other of the guards on duty.  According to Emily, both cakes were lifted from the stash the manager of the eatery had herself pilfered from the inventory of fine delicacies.

 

As they casually strolled down the road others passed on by.  Some looked back with what looked like sarcastic smiles and suspicious eyes.  Louis attributed the leeriness as questions concerning his sudden presence.  Emily did not appear to be phased by the smiles and stares.  She appeared relaxed and content with the late evening stroll.

 

At the security checkpoint, Emily took one of the boxes and handed it to the guard that she identified as a conspirator; a conspirator to what remained the question for Louis.  She led him to a two storied building and through a long hallway with subdued lighting, and brought him inside to a small room.  The room was nearly bare and sterile.  A bed was centered between clean white walls.  A small, simple stand was a perch for a meager looking lamp that provided adequate light for the space.  A small, open closet was neatly lined with white blouses, black pants, and two pair of black shoes placed on the barren floor.  A small and rickety looking dress of drawers held what he imagined to be other articles of clothing and personal trinkets held dear by Emily.

 

Emily kicked off her shoes and sat down on the bed.  She asked Louis to give her a moment as she rubbed what could only have been the accumulated stress, the aches and pains from standing for the better part of the workday out of the feet.

 

“Come with me,” she said while she stood back up.

 

Louis followed her down the hallway and they entered a much bigger room that was like  the sleeping dorm to which he was assigned to back in the Village.  The room had numerous chairs scattered about.  A man was arranging the chairs in a circular pattern as another set out cups, plates, and forks on a table in the corner.  A dozen or so bottles filled with some sort of liquid occupied the space next to the cups.  Emily took the cake from Louis and handed it to the man setting up the table.

 

Louis eyed the cake.  Cookie had occasionally baked cakes when the ingredients were available, but he had never baked a cake that was covered with a thick, deep brown frosting.  Without a word Louis strolled over to the table and took a finger to the dark creamy layer and sampled a taste.  Its distinctive flavor overwhelmed the taste of the hot drink back at the eatery.  He had no clue if that's what Emily meant as chocolate, but if it was, he wished for nothing but chocolate when he got back to the Village.

 

Emily called to Louis and they sat down together in the circle.  Others soon arrived.  Each gave him the same leery look that he had seen back on the road.  Each sat staring intently at him.

 

“Who is he?” asked a man.

 

“He is with us,” stated Emily.

 

“How do you know?” a voice asked.

 

“Because officers Gil and William dropped him off.”

 

“How do you know that?”

 

Emily stood, “How else would he have known to come to me?”

 

“What sector is he from?”

 

“He is not from Los Angeles.”

 

“If you don’t mind,” Louis stated, “I’m more than willing to answer anyone’s questions myself.”

 

“Why are you here?”

 

Louis shrugged his shoulders, “I have no idea.”

 

A spontaneous eruption of voices from the men and women sitting in the circle confused Louis.  Confrontational questions were posed back and forth between many of the individuals.

 

“Enough,” shouted Emily.  “Let’s not lose our focus here.  Everyone just listen.”  She turned to Louis and signaled him to go ahead and speak.

 

Feelings of impending doom took control of his thoughts and transported his mind back to the conditions of the Village.  Louis instantly recognized that what he was facing in the moment were the same in moments past that caused him to seek a temporary escape from the desires of his fellow workers.  He felt the full weight of pressure from eyes staring intently on him.  A plea to his Lord for a perspective both he and they could understand was asked in silence.  While thoughts raced about his mind, calmness intervened.  Feelings arose from the heart with a remembrance of what his dad had told him and led him to tranquility.

 

“My name is Louis.  I was created in our Father’s image, He brought me into this world with a good heart, and He loves me.  The same holds true for all of you here; for everyone in this world.”

 

The confrontational atmosphere that had plagued the room subsided.  As if a sudden calmness emerged in the middle of a turbulent storm, all that were gathered in the circle seemingly returned their eyes to their Lord and the confrontational atmosphere gave in to attentive faces.

 

Louis smiled.  “First, I’m here from a village that probably provides at least some of the food you eat, so I’m connected to all of you in that way.  But more importantly, and I presume this of all of you here, I love our Lord, just like most of the men and women I knew back in my village.  But I’m seeing the same attitudes in you as I began to see in them.  More and more they began to lose their faith not because of what they were facing, but because of the things that were being taken away.  I tried to assure them that no matter what was happening that our Lord was still there to make sure that things didn’t go really bad, but they wouldn’t listen.  I got frustrated.  I just wanted to escape from it for a day but one thing led to another and here I am.”

 

“I got a call from Officer Gil before leaving work,” Emily spoke.  “A woman made a call to him saying that he was asking about the whereabouts of a house of worship and feared his safety.  They intervened and brought him to me.  So, you see, he is with us.”

 

A young man stood up.  “My name is Michael.  I’d like to apologize on behalf of everyone here.”

 

Louis scanned all that were seated quietly in the circle and could see the heads affirmatively nod to Michael’s offer of an apology for all.

 

“I take it I’m here because they’re taking God away again?”

 

“Sadly,” Emily answered, “they are.”

 

“But we’re not supposed to fear them.  They’re our brothers and sisters too.  Our struggle is not against them but against it that has them under a spirit of deception.”

 

“You don’t understand,” said Michael, “it’s not that any of us are afraid, it’s just that we are trying to prevent them from doing it all over again.”

 

“But they need our help,” said Louis.  “We at least need to speak out so they can hear about our Lord’s love.”

 

“In time, yes,” Michael stated.

 

“We’re working to move ourselves away from here,” said Emily.  “More and more our Lord is bringing help from unexpected places.  We just have to be careful in the meantime.”

 

“Don’t get us wrong Louis,” stated Michael, “we are going about bringing in those who still believe in our Lord’s way.”

 

“But why the hiding?”

 

“There is a place we are going to go,” Emily spoke up,” where we can bring in our brothers and sisters to make us stronger and bigger.  Once we do that, our Lord will enable us to speak out with a strength that the councilmen cannot counter.”

 

“We have help in many places,” a man spoke.

 

“There is one of our brothers that works at the main distribution center that is sneaking food to the new location,” said a woman.

 

“Like officers Gil and William, the guards here in this sector, our Lord is giving us help in bringing in everyone who refuses to abide by the lies and seek his Truth,” said Emily.

 

“When our numbers grow,” stated Michael, “then we preach his Truth out in the open.  We’re his vessels.  He wants us to do that for our brothers and sisters, his children.”

 

“But the more we stay silent,” said Louis, “the stronger they get.”

 

“I don’t think you’re going to find anyone here that will argue with that,” stated Michael, “but the chief councilors have given an order that anyone who fails to recognize that they are the sole authority to obey will be arrested and taken to a repatriation camp.”

 

Emily reached out and placed a hand on Louis’ shoulder.  “Again, it’s not that any one of us is scared Louis, it’s just that we need to hide for awhile until the councilmen can be overcome.”

 

“Look,” said Louis, “this has all happened before.  Didn’t your parents tell you about the men that made themselves gods?  How can you not realize that He sees this?  How can you not know that He has seen this from even before He created this entire universe?  I’m asking don’t fall into the same old trap of the powers and principalities.”

 

“Who are you to tell us that?” a man shouted.

 

“Don’t you know?  Can’t you see?  I told you I’m just like you, like everybody.  My dad….”

 

“And who is your dad?”

 

“Terrance.”

 

The rising tension eased at the