Guiding the woman by the arm, pulling her against him so he could support her, Delroy reached down and rocked one of the pews back upright. The pew wobbled but stayed level. He sat her there. Uncomfortable with how he towered over her, he dropped into a squatting position.
“How old was Rashad?” Delroy asked in a gentle voice.
The woman tried to speak and couldn’t.
“Rashad weren’t but seven,” the boy said.
“What’s your name?” Delroy asked.
“Dominic.”
“And your momma’s?”
Dominic hesitated.
“It’s okay, Dominic,” Delroy said. “I just want to try to help.”
“Phyllis,” Dominic answered.
Delroy nodded. “Phyllis.”
The woman looked up at him.
“All the children disappeared that night,” Delroy said. “You know that, right?”
“That’s what I been tole. But I was so scairt. I just knew someone had done stole Rashad. I just knew once the DHS office fount out I done lost one of my chir’ren, they’d be along soon enough to take the rest of ‘em.” Phyllis wept, mouth working as she tried to continue talking. “Reverend, my babies is all I got outside of a hard job an’ bills what don’t stop an’ a life when I ain’t carin’ for my chir’ren.” She shook her head helplessly. “I didn’t want the DHS to come an’ take my babies. I didn’t do nothin’ wrong.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Delroy agreed. “All the children twelve and younger disappeared that night. There was nothing you could have done to stop that.”
“We heard aliens got ‘em,” one of the girls said.
“That ain’t what happened, Nisha,” Phyllis said. “I done tole you God took up them chir’ren.”
“But you ain’t ever said why, Momma,” the other girl said.
“I know, Taryn. That’s ‘cause Momma don’t know yet.” Phyllis looked from her daughters back to Delroy. “I been watchin’ TV, Chaplain. Been readin’ my Bible. But I got no head for what I’m seein’. I just cain’t understand ever’thin’ what’s happened. I talked to my friends, an’ I talked to all them people I could at the hospital. Ain’t nobody got no answers that I can give my chir’ren about what’s happened to their baby brother.” Her voice broke for a moment. “An’ I cain’t even guarantee them that they ain’t gonna be next.”
“No more children will disappear,” Delroy said.
Phyllis searched his face. “Do you know what’s happenin’?”
Delroy hesitated for a moment, knowing he was hovering dangerously close to the edge of something that could swallow him up. He didn’t want to get involved with the woman or her children or their pain. All of them were more than he could handle, and he knew that. A man always had to know his limitations. Delroy did. He was already way in over his head. He just wanted to go back to the safety of USS Wasp.
And even as he thought that, he knew that if his daddy could know his heart and mind in this church right now, Josiah Harte would be ashamed.
“Aye, ma’am,” Delroy said. “I know what’s happening.”
“Then I need to know,” Phyllis pleaded. “I gots to tell my chir’ren so they understand. I don’t want them afraid no mo’. I didn’t work this hard tryin’ to bring them up to be God-fearin’ young men an’ women to have them lost.”
Delroy shook his head. “Ma’am, I really don’t think I’m the one to answer your questions. Don’t you have another pastor?”
“Pastor Leonard was one of them what disappeared,” Dominic said. “He taught a Bible study group at the Salvation Army an’ coached some roundball.”
“There’s women I talk to in my prayer group,” Phyllis said. “They’s tellin’ me that despite ever’thin’ we done seen, we ain’t seen bad yet. But it’s comin’.”
Delroy took in a deep breath and let it out. “Ma’am, I’m weak. I should be at my post on my ship right now. I should be helping young men prepare for battle. I’m not. I let my own self-interest take me away from them.” He shook his head regretfully. “I’m just not the man to do what you’re asking.”
Phyllis’s face turned cold. “Mister, all I’m askin’ you to do is help me explain to my chir’ren what we needs to do. Them ladies in my prayer group, they says the end of the world is upon us, that we missed bein’ called up to be with Jesus because we ain’t where we ought to be in our hearts, an’ that the devil hisself is set loose right in the middle of us like a fox in a henhouse. I ain’t askin’ for you to do it for me. I’m just askin’ for some guidance. That’s all. Just help me understand things I cain’t understand on my own.”
The woman’s words stung Delroy like a whip.
“You ain’t gotta dirty your hands or even break a sweat,” Phyllis said. “I just needs to know what’s comin’ so I can see my chir’ren get off to heaven like they deserve.” She stood with her head held high and tears sparkling on her ebony face. “But if you ain’t man enough to help us out, I best not waste any more time on you.” She took her girls’ hands as she stood and started toward the door.
Delroy watched her. He remembered when he was five years old and he asked his daddy what it was like to be a preacher.
“Well, now, little man,” Josiah had said, reaching down to take his son into his arms, “bein’ a preachin’ man is mighty hard work. You gotta believe so hard that you not only believe enough for yourownself, but you also believe enough for them folks what cain’t believe enough for themselves for a time.”
“How do you do that, Daddy?”
“Well, Son, sometimes you scare the devil right out of ‘em.”
“Like when you tell ‘em what hell is like an’ how their family’s going to miss ‘em in heaven?”
“Yes, sir, that’s one way.”
“You’re real good at that, Daddy. Sometimes you scare me.”
“Well, I’m sorry for
