A Place Called Destiny Read online

  “God, please help me,” she said just before the truck crashed violently into the pole. She felt herself flying off her seat and hitting the hood of the truck and then her body dropped down again. She felt herself slipping away and whispered, “God, please let my child live,” and then blacked out.

  Chapter 2

  Keith Thorn slowly sat down on his sofa while clutching his phone to his ear. He couldn’t believe what his older sister was telling him. When she finished talking, he said in a voice barely louder than a whisper, “What are you saying, Mary? You’re trying to tell me that all the money I got from Grandma when she passed away is gone? How is that possible?”

  Mary, who was also his banker, said, “You have no more money to withdraw, Keith. It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for some time now. You have withdrawn all your money. I warned you about this. It’s not like Grandma left us millions. It was only thirty thousand dollars, which she saved for years. I still have most of my fifteen thousand while you have used up yours.”

  Keith put his hand on his forehead and shut his eyes briefly. He opened them again and said, “Mary, you know we needed a new church here in Destiny. No one in our small town has that kind of money.”

  “And so you had to use all your money?” Mary said exasperatedly.

  “You know the old church had gotten too small since church attendance doubled almost a year ago.” He sighed. He had taken over as the pastor of the only church in town about two years ago. Since then, attendance and membership had grown faster than he could imagine and was still growing. As great as that was, the small church could no longer contain everyone. His dream was to see all the eight hundred or so inhabitants of Destiny attending church regularly, but it would not happen if there was no space for them. “Soon, we’ll have to start turning people away,” he said. “And that would be so wrong, especially as I have been praying for an increase in church attendance. I had to use the money to start building a new, bigger church.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that you spent all your inheritance on building a new church, Keith? And you still haven’t finished building that church?”

  Keith pursed his lips. All the money hadn’t gone to building a new church. He said, “You know that most of the businesses in Destiny have closed and employees have been laid off. A lot of people here either don’t have jobs or are poorly paid. Being the pastor of the only church, people look up to me to help them, not just spiritually, but in any other way I can.”

  Mary sighed loudly. “You’re not God, Keith. You should stop acting like you are. Now that you have given away all your money to help those people, who is going to help you?”

  “They are your people too, Mary.”

  “Whatever,” she said. “You have no answer to my question, do you?”

  He didn’t. He knew exactly what she was going to say next; what she always said to him every time she called. Just before he opened his mouth to tell her he didn’t want to hear it, she said, “Keith, it’s really time you left Destiny. I am sure Mom and Dad would say the same thing if they were still alive. That town is dying. It’s why I left a long time ago. You are only twenty-eight, Keith. You shouldn’t be wasting your life there.”

  Keith groaned. Ever since their grandmother, who had raised him and his sister, died three years ago, Mary hadn’t stopped bothering him about leaving Destiny. But he did not want to leave. This was where he’d grown up. He knew without a doubt that God wanted him here. He loved the people and he loved being the pastor of the church God had placed in his care. He would never leave. Not until the Lord told him to.

  “You said Mom and Dad would have told me to leave if they were alive,” Keith muttered. “Since they died when we were really young, I don’t know if you are right, but I know what Grandma would say if she were still alive. She would agree with me. She would tell me to stay in Destiny and shepherd the flock that God had given me. And she would also tell me to take care of the house we grew up in. The house she loved.” He looked around the living room, which his grandmother had furnished with chintz curtains and chairs. It was not his style, but he had changed nothing.

  “Keith, that house is crumbling and so is Destiny. Tell me, how many people your age or younger still live there?”

  “More than a few still do, Mary. Besides, it doesn’t matter if no one here is my age.”

  “It matters! Isn’t it time for you to settle down and have a family of your own? You know there are no young eligible women in Destiny. I’m worried about you, Keith. All I want is for you to be happy. I want you to find a young woman to fall in love with, marry, and have children with. I am worried that you will stay in that town, grow old, and die alone.”

  Keith wanted to tell her that it wasn’t going to happen, but instead he shuddered at her words. Even though he tried not to think about it, especially when he’d had so much on his plate for the past two years, from time to time he worried about exactly what his sister was saying. She was right. There were only a few single women in town and none he was interested in. He wanted what Mary had — a loving spouse and children — but he couldn’t just leave Destiny because of that. He said to Mary, “God will bring me the right person when it’s time.”

  “Listen, Keith, I trust in the Lord as much as you do, but faith without work is dead. You don’t expect the Lord to mold a wife just for you from the sands of Destiny.”

  He chuckled in spite of himself. “The sands of Destiny! That sounds like a drama-filled daytime soap opera.”

  “I’m serious, Keith!” Mary sounded exasperated. “You need to get out of that town. You’ve given away all your money and you’re planning to give away your future. I can help you find a decent job if you come to Denver. Maybe then we can work towards also finding you a bride.”

  “Stop it, Mary!” Keith said. He knew she was just looking out for him as his older sister, but still. He would not be forced to leave the town that God had called him to. “I’m not going anywhere. Like I said, God will provide everything I need, including a wife, if that is His will for my life.”

  For a long moment, there was silence on the other end of the line and Keith frowned. “Mary, are you there?”

  “At least let me send you some money,” Mary said. “But you have to promise that you will use it for yourself and not for that church. And don’t tell me you don’t want to take money from me.”

  “You have your kids to think of. I cannot take your money. And please don’t insist.”

  “Keith, I can afford to send you a little money.”

  “No,” Keith said firmly. “And any money I have now will be used for the church building and to help anyone in need here. Since you don’t want me to do any of that, it would be wrong to take your money.”

  Mary groaned and said, “Alright, little brother. I guess I will have to keep praying that the Lord will make you leave.”

  “Not going to happen. God doesn’t change His mind.”

  “Okay, then. I’ve told you about the state of your finances. What you do about it is up to you now. I love you. I’ll call you in a few days.”

  “I love you too, Mary,” Keith said, smiling. “Say hi to Will and the kids for me.”

  After the call ended, Keith leaned back against the sofa, thinking about everything his sister had said. “Lord, I need your help right now,” he prayed. “I have no money left and I believe you want me to build a church that will be big enough to hold everyone in Destiny if need be. I can’t do that without any money.”

  He wasn’t even going to think about how he would survive. He had a little cash with him, but it would barely cover his weekly groceries. He had been using money from his inheritance and the little money he made from his small store to cover his expenses. Now, the inheritance money was gone. All that would be left for his daily upkeep would be money from the store and the tiny stipend he was given as a pastor. He barely made a profit from the store and when he did, it was just a small profit. He sighed, worried. From now on,
he would have to be extremely thrifty. What was most important was finishing the church and helping the needy in Destiny.

  He kept worrying for a long time and then finally stood up, trying to brush aside his concerns. Worrying continuously about finances and his marital status would do no good. He went to the window and drew back the curtains. And then he blinked. He’d expected sunlight to shine through to brighten his day, as it was midday in July. Instead, the sky outside was dark and looked slightly foreboding, like a storm was gathering.

  He shut the curtains once more. The weather simply reminded him of his life now. His store wasn’t doing well and he’d only been fully sustained by the inheritance money. Now it was gone, what would he do? The church was only half-built. How would it be completed? Why wasn’t he more like Mary, handling money carefully? He’d never liked discussing finances, and now he was going to pay for his carelessness.

  He sat back down on the sofa, and even though he tried not to think about all his problems, telling himself that God would make a way, he couldn’t stop worrying.

  He began to ask the Lord if he was indeed supposed to remain in Destiny, but he knew the answer already. This was where he was supposed to be. Still, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Mary had said, not just concerning his finances, but his chances of ever finding love if he stayed in Destiny. Strangely, that bothered him even more than his lack of finances and ability to continue with the church building project.

  Maybe that is not God’s will for my life, he mused. He had always been one to submit completely to God, but the thought that it might not be His will for him to ever have a wife and children felt like a tragedy.

  He tried to shake his worry, but it clung to him. His head ached from worrying until at last, he scolded himself for wasting time and energy, fretting over things that he could not change, at least right now. He stood up, went into his room, and sat down at his desk. Opening his Bible, he sighed, and then began to study, preparing for his sermon at the church later in the evening.

  Chapter 3

  Rachel stood holding the front door ajar while she eavesdropped on Mike and the church elders. They were arguing outside the house… because of her. She sucked in her breath and drew back as one of the elders turned his head in her direction. “Lord, I hope they haven’t seen me,” she whispered in panic. A few seconds later, she snuck a look. The elder had turned back to Michael. Rachel said a silent prayer of thanks to God and then continued to listen to them.

  “You’re not taking my wife anywhere,” Mike said. “Rachel has been serving the appropriate punishment in the house. I haven’t allowed her out of the house since she came back from the clinic a few days ago.”

  Rachel pursed her lips, annoyed. She hated being called Mike’s wife. The men in this community collected wives as easily as some people collected stamps. They were never legally married to any but their first wives, just the way she and Mike were not legally husband and wife. But still, in the eyes of these wicked people, she was Mike’s wife. Which meant that she was his property.

  One of the elders snorted. “You cannot mete out whatever punishment you choose by yourself, Michael. You know what the rules are. Whoever tries to abandon her marriage and flee the community will be taken to the House of Restoration where she will stay until her mind has been completely renewed.”

  Rachel’s heart began to beat with dread. She had never entered the House of Restoration, but she had heard rumors about what happened there. It was bad enough that she had been caught trying to escape and then locked up in the house by Mike. To be sent to that house where there would be more of the brainwashing she’d been subjected to since she’d come to Fallow Creek coupled with hard manual labor was something she didn’t want to contemplate. And yet continuously living with Mike as a proper wife when she wasn’t made her stomach turn. She was carrying his baby now and was due to deliver in a month.

  In a way, she already considered the child in her belly more hers than Mike’s, even though in this community a child belonged first to the father. She felt like striding out of the house and screaming at all these men who were deciding her own fate without her. They had complete power over her.

  She cursed the day her mother had brought her and her brother, Taylor, to the community. She and Taylor had different fathers who were not involved when they were growing up. One day, when Rachel was eight, a strange man had come into their lives. Soon, something weird had happened to Mom. She’d told them she had finally repented of her sins and had found God, but to Rachel she became a sort of robot. Two months later, Mom had moved her and Taylor out of their small house in Glendale so they could go live with Chris in Fallow Creek, and then she’d married him.

  After that, everything about Rachel’s life changed and she was no longer free to be the child that she was. She was put in a drab adult gown that she had to wear every day and was forced to act like an adult. Soon, Chris married two more wives and then had several other children whom Rachel never considered to be her siblings. Only Taylor was the one she loved. Now, Fallow Creek had swallowed him up as well. Presently, he was planning to marry his second “wife”.

  She, on the other hand, had never really fitted into this awful community. She was too headstrong for a woman and had continuously refused to marry anyone, dreaming constantly of the day she could run away from the community and fall in love with her prince charming. Only then did she plan to get married. She would be the only wife and be treated with love and care, the way she had never seen any of the women in Fallow Creek be treated. Unfortunately, that dream never came true. Being a single woman over twenty years old in the community opened her to all kinds of indignities. Since she had refused to get married, her mom and stepfather had decided it was time she left the house without caring where she went. It was their way to force her to get married.

  Knowing she could not leave the community and with no money to take care of herself, as single women were not allowed to have paid jobs, she finally gave in when one of the wealthiest men in the community asked for her hand in marriage. Mike had inherited a great deal of money from his grandfather, which he had tripled through a variety of shrewd investments. Plus, he was well respected in Fallow Creek.

  Their marriage was what the community considered a ‘spiritual’ marriage since Mike already had a wife. She had deceived herself into thinking that somehow, since he was wealthy and a bit more polished than most, he would treat her better, or at the very least, that his wealth would make up for whatever she suffered. She had not considered Olivia, his first wife, nor his children. It was the way of the community, after all. And she had no choice. But when she moved in with Mike, she found out that he was the same as the rest of the men in the community. Maybe even worse. He didn’t think anything about forcing himself on her when she was slow in giving him what he wanted, or alienating her from Olivia.

  When he stopped being intimate with Olivia and made Rachel move permanently into his bedroom, she struggled with guilt and disgust for years. She started to plan her escape from the community a week before she found out she was pregnant. She put it off to rest, especially as the severe morning sickness began, and then a month ago, she began to plan her escape again. And she would have succeeded in escaping if not for Daniel and his idiotic idea to have a bodyguard follow her out of the town.

  She knew Mike and the men were still arguing because she could see the angry expressions on their faces, but she had stopped listening to them. She placed her hand on her belly and caressed it.

  “Thank you, Lord, for preserving my child,” she said. She had woken up a day after the accident to find herself in Fallow Creek’s sole clinic. A few minutes after she’d opened her eyes, Mike had walked into the room and stared at her with fire in his eyes. She had immediately closed her eyes again so she would not have to see how angry he was. When he’d walked out of the hospital again, she’d sighed with relief, though she’d known she would be in trouble the minute she was released from the clinic. Worry
ing about her baby, she had been thankful when the midwife had walked in and told her that her baby was fine. “You did a stupid thing, trying to run away,” the midwife had said, with a frown of disapproval.

  Now she was back in this wretched community. No matter how stupid everyone said her actions had been, how ungodly, she was already planning her escape again. Once Mike lifted this ban and she was allowed out of the house once more, she would find a way to flee the community. But if he gave in to these elders’ demands and she was taken to the Restoration House, she would not be able to escape again soon, maybe never. She felt weak with fear as she held the slightly open door and listened in again to Mike’s discussion with the elders.

  “Rachel is pregnant,” Mike said. “At least let her have my baby, and then you can take her to the Restoration House.”

  One of the elders shook his head and disagreed with Mike but the others said nothing for a while.

  “Please,” Mike begged, looking at each of them. “As I have heard, that Restoration House will be hard for a pregnant woman to bear. You know the Bible says that children are a gift from the Lord. Rachel is bringing a gift into this world. At least let her bring the baby into a familiar environment where she’s comfortable. I promise that once she gives birth and is well rested, I will personally hand her over to all of you.”

  Rachel’s heart began to race. None of the options that she’d heard were bearable to her. Staying with Mike here made her stomach turn. That Restoration House sounded like a nightmare. But it appeared that Mike planned for her to experience both options. She would stay with him until she had given birth and then be sent off to that nightmarish house.