“Glenda never said anything about this in her letters.” Delroy reached for the gate and tried to swing it outward, only to have the hinges tear loose with a screech and the gate come away in his hand. He set the gate aside and entered the church grounds.
“When I saw the surprise and hurt on your face,” Walter said, “I knew she hadn’t. I apologize for that. I thought you did know. I just felt I had to bring you here. Where your daddy was so strong for so long. Don’t ask me why. Just had a strong feeling to get you here this morning. I expect I owe you an apology. This is probably the last thing you needed to see.”
In stunned disbelief, Delroy walked up the short flight of stairs he’d helped his father build. Delroy had been ten when they’d put the new steps in, and he could still remember the pride he’d had when he’d helped pour the concrete to set the support poles, framed the structure, put the steps on, and watched the congregation come up the new stairs the next Sunday. The support poles still stood, weathered and faded, but solid as ever.
“You can go on up,” Walter said. “That porch is a fine piece of work.”
“I know,” Delroy said. “My daddy and I built it. He was always one to build something to last. Always said that a building, especially a church, knew when a man put his heart into it.” He walked up the steps, listening to his footsteps thump against the wood. “I didn’t come here much after my daddy was killed. Too many memories. I should have, but I didn’t. Just didn’t have the heart for it. But I brought my boy—I brought Terrence—here a few times. I wanted him to see where his granddaddy preached.” He stepped onto the porch and looked at all the destruction. “I was married here. Did you know that?”
“No, sir, I didn’t.” Walter took his hat off and held it in his hands. He waited at the foot of the steps.
“I was,” Delroy said, remembering how he and Glenda had stood in front of the pulpit and said their vows that Saturday morning. “I told Glenda I wanted to be married here the night I asked her to be my wife. My daddy was killed a few months later. Before he could marry us. Before he even knew we were getting married. He never got the chance to give his approval.”
“I expect he knew,” Walter said. “Daddies know things like that a lot of times. And if he hadn’t approved of your wife, I’m sure you’d have knowed that too.”
Delroy ran a hand along the double doors. “I wasn’t going to have the wedding here afterwards, but Glenda talked me into doing it. I was glad she did. Reverend Stamp married us.” He shook his head as the memory swelled within him. “I swear, Walter—” emotion choked his voice for a moment—“I swear that on the day I married Glenda I felt my daddy standing next to me inside this church.”
Walter spoke softly and earnestly. “He probably was, Delroy. I heard your daddy put a lot of himself into this place. Man leaves a mark like that, I don’t figure God will prevent him from coming back now and again to check on things.”
Delroy pulled at the chain securing the doors. “I’ve never seen this place locked up. My daddy always kept these doors open. He always said that people who needed to pray needed a place to do it in.”
Walter came up beside Delroy with a key ring. He went through five keys before he found the right one. Then the lock snapped open and he took the chains away.
“If that was your daddy’s policy,” the deputy said, “I don’t see no reason why we should go changing things now.” He pushed the double doors open. “Go on in. Have a look around. I just want you to know: what you see in there is probably gonna break your heart.” Walter pushed the doors open wide.
8
United States of America
Fort Benning, Georgia
Local Time 0958 Hours
“I think one of the key points we need to work on is identifying the Antichrist.”
Megan looked up from the book about the end times and focused on Shawn Henderson. “Why?”
“So we don’t fall into his traps.”
Shaking her head, Megan said, “I don’t know if I agree with that.”
“Mrs. G,” Shawn said patiently, pushing his glasses back up his nose, “knowing the enemy is like one of the most important things you do when you’re at war. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this whole section dealing with the Tribulation seems to center on the war that will be fought between heaven and hell for those who have been left behind.”
“It’s not our fight,” Megan said. “We just need to survive.”
“And work on our faith,” Susan January added. “That’s what kept us here when everyone else left.”
“Before we do that,” Kyle Lonigan said, “I really think we’re going to have to define what faith is. We need to know what it is we’re looking for.”
Everyone in the room looked at him.
“How do you define faith?” Megan asked.
Kyle looked uncomfortable. Over the years that she had known him, Megan had always found Kyle to be insightful, something that he usually tried to hide around the other jocks he hung with.
She hadn’t often seen Kyle in counseling sessions, but he had lost his father a few years ago to a heart attack. His mother was a drill sergeant on base, a
