Jack and Phil
hastily sped up the hill. It was more of a gentle slope than a hill really.
Nevertheless, the speedy ascent caused both men to pant for breath. They both
tried to conceal their lack of physical conditioning but they knew each other
too well. Jack managed a wry smile as he noticed Phil lagging behind. They knew
that the rain was coming although the dark of night blanketed the sleepy little
town they were wandering through. Even though the skies were too dark to
discern any sign of rain clouds, the moist air was full of the taste of rain.
“C’mon Phil you
need to keep up,” Jack encouraged as the gentile incline now rolled onto a
level surface.
“I’m trying.”
Phil finally made
it back to Jack’s side as they feverishly combed the buildings lining the sides
of the narrow street. They knew what they were looking for. It was almost as if
they were engaged in a competition to see who would spot it first. As they
approached the centre of the tiny town, they stood still while their heads
spasmodically turned in different directions. There was not a garage in sight.
“I told you to get
rid of that stupid little car!” Jack lamented.
“Well if you’d
help me buy one, then we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Phil rebutted.
“Of all the places
for this piece of trash car to stall, it had to be in Hicksville USA,” Jack
solemnly stated. “You know what they do to people like us around here?”
Phil knew that
Jack was right but he was not willing to admit it. The town in which they were
wandering was not a proper place for people like them to be. He simply smiled
as Jack kept complaining. Eventually, Jack would run out of steam and simmer
down. Phil drew closer to Jack and gently grabbed his hand to calm him.
“Excuse me!”
Interrupted a heavy abrasive voice.
Phil turned to see
a burly six- foot, eight inch tall Caucasian man towering over them. His shabby
beard and his sleeveless plaid shirt lent to his intimidating aura.
“Ahhh... Sir, we
were just wondering if there’s someone around here who could help us with our car,
it’s broken down,” Phil stuttered with a nervous chuckle.
“Listen boy, we
don’t need your kind round here in these parts,” the man angrily stated.
“Sir, I was just…”
“What do you mean
our kind?” Jack interrupted.
“We don’t need you
Homos coming around here messin’ up our beautiful town.”
“It’s perfectly
legal for us to be in these here parts…partner!” Jack angrily taunted as he
walked toward the ignorant buffoon.
“This is my town
and it’s best you just go on through,” the hairy man instructed.
“We’re not going
anywhere,” Jack shouted.
“Listen we just
want to fix our car and we’ll be on our way,” Phil interrupted.
“We don’t want you
in our town!” the man screamed as he jabbed his filthy index finger into Jack’s
face.
Jack’s catlike
reflexes immediately kicked in as he grabbed the man’s oversized finger and
wrung it causing a crisp breaking sound. The large man squealed in pain. Jack’s
temper was something he struggled to control. It was something that Phil
repeatedly tried to talk to him about but to no avail. Jack was now pounding
away upon the head of his oversized antagonist. Phil beckoned for him to stop
but it was almost as if Jack was enjoying the vicious assault.
Phil grabbed Jack
and draped himself over his flailing body as he struggled to quell his vicious
onslaught. Eventually, Jack’s fury subsided and the oversized buffoon lay writhing
on the concrete sidewalk.
“That wasn’t
called for Jack.”
“Don’t get started
with me,” Jack immediately rebutted. “He had it coming.”
“Maybe, but we
have to be the better people.”
“We are the better
people Phil.”
“I love you but…”
Suddenly, the
conversation between Jack and Phil was interrupted by a small group of men who
noticed their tall hairy friend lying on the filthy sidewalk. The group of men,
flooded out of a nearby bar which stood about a hundred yards away from the
stranded couple. The men, now armed with baseball bats and knives started in
immediate pursuit of the strangers.
“We better run
Jack!”
“No way!” Jack
ignorantly grunted. “I don’t care if they kill me.”
“How selfish are
you?”
“OK…OK”
Jack and Phil took
off running for their lives. If that gang caught up with them, then chances are
they would not be around to see the dawning of the sun.
“We need to find a
crowded place Jack,” Phil stuttered as he struggled to catch his breath.
“I know…but
where?”
The two ran for
their lives hoping to see a police precinct or a crowded restaurant but there
was nothing of the sort to be seen. The flustered mob remained in hot pursuit.
As Jack and Phil turned the corner of the empty street their eyes fell upon the
glare of a giant blue lighted cross hovering above a small wooden church.
“Let’s go in
there,” Phil declared.
“Ahhh… no… those
church people are the ones who created those hooligans that’s chasing us in the
first place.”
“C’mon Jack…let’s
go… it’s open and surely the can’t kill us in the church!”
Jack and Phil
hastily entered into the little white church and made their way to the back
pew. A young dark eyed preacher mounted the pulpit and began to address the dense
crowd. Phil respectfully bent his head as Jack intently listened. Phil knew
what Jack was doing. He was waiting for the young pastor to utter a homophobic
word to give him an excuse to react. The gentle preacher spoke of the Love of
God and his grace toward men.
“Their god loves
them but he hates homosexuals,” Jack whispered as Phil pretended to ignore him.
“Jesus loves
everyone,” the tall handsome preacher declared. “God is not willing that any
should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Phil listened
intently as he felt the words of the preacher caress the extremities of his
heart. He could feel the genuine love of the God of heaven lingering in the
atmosphere. It was too potent to ignore.
“It doesn’t matter
who you are… or what you’ve done,” the preacher continued. “It is
inconsequential whether you’re Hindu, Muslim, sikh, Sai, gay, straight, bent…
it doesn’t matter, Jesus will cleanse and forgive you.”
“I told you he’d
talk about gays!” Jack exclaimed. “They always bash us.”
“Jack you’re such
an idiot.”
“Where are you
right now?” the preacher questioned as he calmly strolled across the platform.
“You’re not sure if what you’re doing is pleasing to God? Well, these days most
men live a life that’s pleasing to themselves alone. Their God is their belly.
Don’t fall into that place. When you sin, the little conscience that remains
testifies to the unnatural feeling of unrighteousness. In other words, you
don’t need a law to tell you what’s right or wrong, man was created to sense
the truth. Unfortunately, we have shut out the voice of the Spirit and leaned
unto our own understanding. The conscience of many has been seared with a hot
iron.”
The piercing words
of the young minister reverberated within Phil’s mind. Jack sensed his
submission and in turn grabbed his hand to distract his pathetic soul
searching. Phil knew that he loved the man sitting next to him but his heart
was searching for something deeper.
“Give your heart
to Jesus today,” the preacher implored. “This decision does not hinge upon the
approval of anyone else. Every man has to answer for himself. That’s why the
bible declares that two shall be in one bed, one taken and the other one left.
Don’t you want to spend eternity with the greatest love you’ll ever know? There
is no love greater than the love of Christ. If you accept him, if he comes
tonight you’ll be with him in glory. Instantly!”
Phil fought to
conceal the stream of tears teetering on the brink of his flickering eyelids.
He knew that he wanted something greater than the life that he was living. He
also knew that he could not imagine his life without Jack.
Jack on the other
hand feverishly struggled to stop himself from standing up and cursing the
homophobic minister. He knew that Phil
was concealing an internal struggle and he blamed the preacher for it. Still, he
was smart enough to know that it wasn’t the preachers fault but it was easier
to blame the preacher than to admit that he couldn’t meet the inner desires of
the man that he loved.
The young vibrant
minister then made a call for who wanted to accept Jesus. All Phil had to do
was raise his hand to receive Jesus. If the Lord would come at that very
moment, then he would have everlasting life. Still, he knew what raising his
hand meant. He was not ready to lose his love for Jack. He loved him too much.
Phil simply sat still while Jack kept staring at him out of the corner of his
eye. Both men refused the preacher’s offer. Phil loved his current life too
much to have God change it.
Jack and Phil
waited until the congregation began to exit and made their way out with them.
There was no sign of the men who were chasing them. A man from the congregation
enquired about their situation and gladly repaired their little pile of junk,
without charge. Jack was admittedly shocked by the elderly man’s kindness.
Maybe he didn’t know that they were gay or maybe he didn’t know what being gay
was. The old mechanic just smiled at the men as he shook their hands. As they
pulled out of his garage, the old man waved while declaring, “Jesus loves you
guys, even if you think he hates gay people. He brought you here didn’t he.”
Jack made the long
trip back to the city without stopping. He was determined to get them back to
the apartment and he did. The next few days Phil struggled to ease back into
his routine. Something about the young preacher’s discourse remained in his
consciousness. Whatever it was, he was determined to overcome it. There was nothing stronger than the power of
love, he thought to himself as he shoved every other thought to the darkest
corners of his mind.
One night as Jack
and Phil lay asleep in their king sized bed; Phil awoke in a sweaty stupor. He
heard the young preacher’s words and he saw the old mechanic’s face in his
dreams. He could not understand what had him so disturbed. The faint light
bleeding in from the nearby streetlight cast a faint spread of illumination across
Jack’s contented face. Phil carefully scrutinized the man next to him and then
took a long look at himself. His entire situation seemed skewed, unnatural in a
sense, just as the preacher had said. He knew it all along but was not willing
to admit it. Now his heart was ready to override his mind.
“Lord Jesus, if
you can hear me,” Phil prayed. “Please forgive me. I need you and I need your
love. I want to go with you when you return for your children.”
Although Phil’s
prayer was short, he knew that it was effective. He didn’t know where to go
from there but he was determined to tell Jack about his decision.
“Jack, Jack… get
up,”
“What?”
“I don’t want this
anymore.”
“You don’t want
what?” Jack lazily replied as he remained with his back turned toward his
imploring partner.
“This life, I want
out, it just doesn’t feel right.”
“Can we talk about
this tomorrow Phil?”
“I guess we can,”
Phil submitted as for the first time he began feeling uncomfortable while lying
next to Jack.
Jack felt the
frame of Phil’s body next to his and he began to pray that everything was all
right with him. He then began to reconsider Phil’s words. He said he wanted
out. It was only then that it occurred to him that Phil was going to leave him.
He flew upright in a frantic stupor as he turned to his lover’s side of the
bed. Phil was gone. Just a second ago he was sure that he felt Phil’s body next
to his. Phil was gone.
“Phil?” Jack
shouted. “Phil, where are you?”
There was no
answer. Jack jumped out of the bed and rushed toward the light switch. As the
room illuminated, Jack was astonished to see Phil’s side of the bed with the
covering still forming the outline of his body.
It was only then Jack remembered the words of the young handsome
preacher. Two shall be in one bed, one will be taken and the other one left.
