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The Road Between

by J. Peter King

Tom Afters walked out of the church in a rather precarious manner. It was a nice Presbyterian service, but that surely could not satisfy Tom's soul. For Tom his struggle with faith had been nothing short of scabrous. Tom is now about twenty-five and a half years old, but his struggle begins back when he was just the ripe old age of nineteen.   You see, while most of Tom's friends were busy with fast women, alcohol, and drugs, Tom was wondering about things like God, the universe, and "what happens when I die." To make a long story short, none of this set to well with Tom's friends, so the majority of them abandoned him. Then to make matters worse as time wore on Tom would suffer tragedy in his own life with his sister passing on when he was only twenty-one, and after it happened he began to hit the bottle pretty hard.   Early morning, mid-afternoon, and late night, Tom had turned into a regular alcoholic, and his parents became very worried. Call it luck, or maybe fate as you will, but Tom never went to rehab, and still managed to kick the alcohol habit. You see he found another outlet with which to deal with his grief, and that was the second Jeffries Boulevard Presbyterian church. There at age twenty-three was when Tom became "saved", which is what I think they call it now a days in the Christian world.

            So it would seem that everything was going great with Tom being saved and all, and regularly attending Bible classes. Everything was just fine, until he met her. Her name was Valerie, and she and Tom met at a local coffee shop downtown, and that is when things started getting confusing.   She was not a Christian and Tom being the man that he was at the time tried to tell her about Christianity. He told her about what it meant to be saved, Jesus, and of course the afterlife. That was all well and good for Valerie but when Tom finished talking he got more than an earful. Now of course she did not yell at him or say obscene things, but instead she introduced him to her faith of Universalism. In other words this whole time, Tom had been talking to a Unitarian. Of course, this did not discourage Tom but he was eager to find out just what a Unitarian was, and what their faith was about. Thus, one Sunday Valerie took Tom to the all souls Unitarian Church over on the west side of town, and it was there Tom wept with joy. He not only told Valerie, but talked to other Unitarians about his private doubts in the Christian doctrine and faith. They were eager to listen, but it was then Tom felt something deep inside of him that began what is today his religious struggle.

            At twenty-four he had stopped attending any church and began studying all the faiths of the world. But by the time he had hit twenty-five he returned to the Presbyterian, just after he was told by one of the members that he would not go to Heaven unless he was saved again because of his Unitarian experiences. So here we have come to the present moment, the boy or man at the age of twenty-five and a half, going to the church out of fear of condemnation. He would and still does try to rationalize it to this day, thinking that the Christian life is not all that bad, and that Christianity might be the "only" way, but still there is some doubt.

            "What about the Unitarians, and all the other faiths, could they be condemned?"

             "And what about my friend Valerie, she's so sweet and honest, is she going to hell?"

            None of it really made sense to Tom, and the answers he received were not those that he truly wanted to hear. But all that would soon change when Tom left the Presbyterian Church one night, and found a pair of glasses in his car. For Tom, he was surprised to find the glasses, because he had perfect vision, so he attempted to head back to the Church to see if anyone had misplaced a pair of glasses, but the door was locked.

            "Oh well, I'll just hang on to them for now," said Tom.

            Everything seemed peachy keen until he started heading home. When he got on the highway Tom ran into trouble. Now of course, I'm not talking about trouble with the law, but instead I mean car trouble, Tom got a flat, and his cell phone was out of power. Unclear about what he should do Tom pulled off to the side of the road, and began looking for his spare tire, but it was nowhere to be found. Discouraged, he walked down the road a bit, and then turned back to grab the glasses.

            "If someone breaks into the car, I'd hate for them to steal someone else's glasses," thought Tom.

            He then began his journey to the nearest off ramp to a gas station so he could use the phone to call for help. It was a real smooth walk, until Tom got curious about the glasses.

            "I wonder how these would look on me", said Tom.

            With that he tried the glasses on and that's when it happened.

            "What the hell is that girl dead," said Tom.

            He quickly removed the glasses and instantly the image that he had seen went away. He continued walking but became troubled in spirit.

            "What if that girl was really hurt, I know I'm not seeing things," Tom said.

            Not knowing what to do Tom turned around and tried the glasses on, and right as rain, there she was again, just laying there cold and detached on the side of the road. Unsure of where to turn Tom knelt down next to the girl, and tried to revive her.

            "Miss, miss are you hurt, oh man we need help out here."

            As it seemed that the situation could not get any worse it all of the sudden did, as Tom glanced behind him he glanced at another man lying with his eyes shut who was motionless. By now things seemed pretty grim, until out of nowhere it happened. The man and the woman were all of the sudden lifted up into the air and into the clouds until they were out of sight.

            "It's God, it's got to be God, oh God what is it my father what is it?" exclaimed Tom!

            Maybe it was all the excitement, or maybe it was just the fact that Tom had just witnessed something truly terrifying, but he quickly fainted.

            "Mr. Afters, Mr. Afters, or Tom is it", said a woman's voice

            "No, no, oh God, where are they going, and what is happening to me," said Tom

            When Tom opened up his eyes he was no longer by the side of the road, but was in a hospital bed.

            "Mr. Afters, Tom, you, you, were having a terrible dream," said the woman's voice.

            "Where am I, and who are you", said Tom.

            "I am Nurse Sheila, and you are in the tri-country hospital," said Nurse Sheila.

            "A man found you on the side of the road passed out and brought you here" said the nurse.

            Still dazed Tom, looked down, and then up again, and then he realized he was not wearing the glasses anymore. He quickly asked the nurse if she had seen the glasses he had been wearing, but she responded with a firm no.

            "I do not remember any glasses, but we did find this note tucked into your coat pocket," said Nurse Sheila

            She handed Tom the note and then left the room, to give him a chance to get some rest and relaxation. But, before Tom could get to comfortable he opened up the note and it said the following:

            "Dear Tom,

                                    I hope this reaches you in good spirits, and when you are well. I am writing to thank you for returning my glasses to me, without them I think I would be lost, but I must be honest I wanted you to keep them for a short while. You see Tom, you were not imagining things, and your religious struggle has been very real and painful, so that is why I had you get that flat tire and meet the two individuals on the side of the road. The woman she was a Quaker, and the man he was non-religious, but Tom I love them both equally and could never reject them, or let other say that they will pay in the afterlife. So I wanted you to see that I do talk with all of those who come from all walks of life, let's just say it's in my nature. I hope this has taught you to follow your heart and stay true to yourself, and to those that love you, because I love you too. I hope this has been a helpful experience, was it? I hope I did not hurt you in anyway, did I?

                                                            Wishing you the best, J.C. (Just Curious)

                                                            P.S. Your sister says hello

            With that big tears filled Tom's eyes, as another nurse walked in.

            "Sir is everything alright?" said the nurse.

  As she spoke the words on the paper quickly faded, as Tom wiped the tears from his eyes.

            "Yes everything is fine, but where is Nurse Sheila?" said Tom.

            "Nurse who?" exclaimed the Nurse

            "Sir, I am sorry but we do not have a Nurse Sheila who works here, I am Nurse Karen, are you sure you are feeling okay?" said Nurse Karen

            Tom then smiled and thought of his friends, family, and life.

            "I am great, and I hope that you are too." Said Tom

            Shortly there after Tom was released from the hospital and began attending church with Valerie, as well as the Presbyterian Church. At first he felt uneasy about going to two different Churches but then he got over it.

         "I'm not sure if it's right, but somehow I know it is," thought Tom.

Bio:   J. Peter King is a writer and college student from Michigan.   He has had many articles published in the SouthEnd newspaper.