Suave began to shake uncontrollably, beads of perspiration appearing on his face. His phone rang.
“Yeah?” Suave said into his cell phone.
“You don’t sound too good, Suave,” Alwayne said with concern. “You all right, man? Annette and I are outside church waiting for you.”
“I’m a little under the weather.” Suave’s tongue felt heavy in his mouth.
“That’s the devil speaking. Hold on a sec. Annette wants to talk to you.”
Annette came on the phone. “Suave, listen to me. Do you feel well enough to drive over here to church?” she asked.
“I’m not coming to church. I’m sick.”
“Alwayne and I will come and pick you up,” Annette assured him. She lowered her voice. “It’s just the devil trying to prevent you from coming to church so that he can torture you in that house. Don’t let him win, Suave.”
Suave moved the phone from his ear to look at it, a puzzled look plastered over his face.
Unbeknownst to Suave, while he was hallucinating about a ghost from the past, Annette was manifesting in the Holy Ghost.
“Suave? You there?”
Suave heard Annette when he put the phone back to his ear. “Pastor Ralph was here,” he whispered, scanning the room to see if his tormentor was still lurking around.
“Satan, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus!” Annette began speaking in tongues.
Suave listened with his eyes closed. He was so relieved that he could finally share this with somebody who wanted to help him. “I’m on my way,” Suave said with determination. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Suave hung up the phone, rested it on the bed, and walked into the bathroom.
He was going to church, and Pastor Ralph could stay in hell.
* * *
“I’m so glad you could make it.” Annette hugged Suave like a long lost brother.
Suave returned the hug awkwardly. The Clarks were treating him like family, and he wasn’t used to it. “Well, I don’t want to lose my lawyer,” he joked.
At the church’s door, Suave paused and said, “I think I’m going to sit in the back. You guys can go up front.”
“Okay,” Annette replied without hesitation. “After church, I would like you to meet our family.” She took ahold of her husband’s hand, and they all entered the church where service was already underway.
While Annette and Alwayne went down the aisle for a seat closer to the front, Suave noticed one in the last row and slipped into it before the usher could even acknowledge him. Almost sitting on the edge of his seat, Suave looked up at the podium and saw that Bishop Hudson was about to give the word. “Just great,” he muttered.
“Pardon me?” responded the lady sitting beside Suave. “Did you say something?”
“Oh no. Sorry.” Suave focused his attention back on Bishop Hudson. He was determined to listen and not compare the man to the ghost that was haunting him.
“Today, I want to talk to you about redemption,” Bishop Hudson began. “Ephesians 1:7 says, ‘In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.’ Amen. Redemption is possible through the blood of Jesus! Hello, somebody? I said that you can be delivered from the bondage of sin and find peace with God. Am I speaking to somebody?”
“Amen, Pastor,” a member shouted from the front.
“You better speak to me, Bishop,” a young lady in the choir yelled.
Bishop Hudson paused, took off his jacket, and handed it to his assistant. He grabbed the microphone out of the stand and paced the pulpit. “We all need redemption. You know why? Because we all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”
Hmmm, interesting, Suave thought. Even Christians need redemption too.
As if he read Suave’s mind, Bishop Hudson remarked, “So you can act like you were born holy, pure, and righteous all you want, but that’s not the case. We were able to become a child of God because Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross. His death was in exchange for our life.”
“Praise the Lord,” “Thank you, Jesus,” and “Hallelujah” rang throughout the church.
“Do you want to be free from the burden of guilt?” Bishop Hudson asked, looking out at the congregation.
Suave shifted in his seat, wondering why the bishop was looking at him.
“Do you want to be free from curses and bondage?” Bishop Hudson stepped down from the pulpit into the aisle. “God already purchased our freedom,” he said, his eyes wandering from one face to the other as he moved closer to the back.
He better stop picking on me, or else I’m stepping. Suave defiantly stared at the bishop as he got closer, his arms folded, and his face screwed up like a dried apple. I’m no punk.
“I said, you can go from being a sinner to a saint if you accept God’s gift of eternal life.” Bishop Hudson was now at Suave’s bench, where he paused.
Suave glanced at the bishop through the corner of his eyes, and his head held straight. He didn’t acknowledge the bishop, and for the bishop’s sake, Suave was hoping he wouldn’t acknowledge him.
“I’m glad to see you this morning, my brother.” Bishop Hudson looked down at Suave, who still wasn’t looking at him.
All eyes in the church turned toward the back where Suave sat. Alwayne and Annette held hands and nervously looked on. Bishop Hudson was known to prophesize to his members, revealing things that no one else knew but God. He would also predict certain happenings that always came true. This usually made some members excited about receiving a blessing, and others nervous when they hadn’t been walking on the “right” side.
“God is going to give you a second chance.” Bishop Hudson rested his hand on Suave’s shoulder. “Those demons that are haunting you are leading you down a narrow road.”
Suave’s heart began to gallop in his chest. He wanted to brush off the preacher’s hand, but he felt compelled to hear what the man had to say.
“Your mind gets so
