Special Preview Excerpt from Delivered From Evil
by Brian Williams (Pen Name: First Born)
Chapter 1
Reverend James Dawkins wore an enormous grin on his round, clean-shaven face as he scanned the congregation from the pulpit of Swain Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. Always a jolly man, filled with the Holy Spirit, The Rev appeared more cheerful than usual this particular Sunday morning. Seeing newly-baptized young Christians seated in the front pew of his jam-packed church stirred his warm heart and even caused his large docile eyes to fill with tears of joy.
God shole is good he thought to himself as the choir sang one of his favorite spirituals. The unified voices sang in a rhythmic tempo that was more upbeat than usual:
“Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king. Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king. Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king… Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we are going to see the king….”
As far as Reverend Dawkins was concerned, summer of 2005 had turned out to be one of the most successful revival summers in recent history. Twelve young souls from tumultuous backgrounds had given their life to Christ, and now they sat in the front of the church praising like there was no tomorrow.
“No more dying there, we are going to see the king. No more dying there, we are going to see the king. No more dying there, we are going to see the king… Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we are going to see the king…”
When the choir had concluded the old familiar hymn, the Reverend slowly rose from his throne-sized seat in the pulpit. With outstretched arms, he rested his big palms on the edges of the podium. He gleamed with divinity, dressed in an all white robe that concealed his stubby 5 foot 10 inch stature. As usual, his salt and pepper taper was freshly trimmed, perfectly framing his dark oakwood-complexioned face.
Before addressing the congregation, he stood before them in silence, reflecting upon the greatness of the Lord.
“Take ya time, Rev!” sister Betty shouted, wildly slapping her hands together.
“Yes Lawd, yes Lawd, yes Lawd!” mother Harper yelled, shaking her head, filled with the Holy Ghost.
Reverend Dawkins was in no hurry this morning. He was taking it all in, beaming proudly at the twelve new disciples, recalling the turning point in his own life that originally led him to the Lord, years ago in 1968.
<1968>
“You wanna smoke another one?” Martha asked, gazing up at JD, her head resting on his lap. Marvin Gaye’s How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You loomed from the speakers, humming soothingly throughout the dimly-lit love zone. Sweet-smelling incense burned in a holder that sat on the coffee table in front of them, cultivating a heavenly fragrance that tarried in the air.
Four weeks ago, James Dawkins (better known as JD in his younger days, before becoming a reverend) had met his dream girl, Martha, at The Red Bird Café, the liveliest juke joint in Tallahassee for local blacks back during that era. At the time, JD was eighteen years old, had just graduated from Rickards High School, and still lived at home with his parents. Martha was twenty-one years old, visiting from Baltimore, Maryland for the summer, and was considered a perfect ten by all the local young men. From her slender hour glass figure, to her smooth pecan-tanned skin, to those mesmerizing light brown eyes of hers, Martha drove all the guys wild.
“We can do that,” JD answered, delicately running his fingers through Martha’s silky smooth hair. His squinted eyes were filled with adoration for her.
Sitting in the living room of his parents’ home wearing only a pair of underwear beneath a bathrobe, JD felt like king of the world. Martha lay stretched across the sofa clad in a bathrobe of her own. Obviously, JD’s parents were not home while JD and Martha played house in their home. His parents had traveled to Daytona for the weekend to visit his mother’s sister and her family.
Prior to being in this new relationship with Martha, JD had only dabbled with marijuana on a few rare occasions, with his cousin, Trap. During those infrequent smoke sessions, JD barely smoked the stuff, simply puffing on the joint and quickly blowing out the smoke, not inhaling the intoxicating stimuli.
Nowadays, he was smoking like an old veteran and loving every minute of it. Seemingly brainwashed into thinking that Martha could do no wrong, her negative influence was quickly becoming his demise.
“Let’s sprinkle some of this in it,” Martha said, holding up a bag of snowflake-white cocaine, confident that her lover would be game.
A nervous grin slowly stretched across JD’s face. A week ago, Martha had introduced him to snorting the lethal substance. In a weeks time, the couple had indulged in the drug four times, and JD was slowly developing an addiction to the stuff. This would be his first time smoking it though.
“Whew, baby,” JD said, wiping his face, then attempting to focus his droopy-looking eyes. “You ever mixed weed and coke together before?” he asked.
Taking it upon herself to sprinkle a few drops of the powdery substance into the joint before JD gave his consent, Martha answered, “I’ve tried it a few times. I think you’ll like it.”
Intently observing Martha as she raised the joint to her luscious lips, JD felt as if the series of events taking place at that moment were moving in slow motion. The joint burned a peculiar flame when she lit it. The odorous smell that emitted quickly overpowered the once-aromatic fragrance of the burning incense.
When Martha handed the joint to JD, a tiny flame popped from it and landed on his thigh. He jolted from the minor searing sensation that stimulated his leg and he quickly diffused the flame, leaving a small hole in his bathrobe.
The first hit he consumed rushed straight to his head, causing his eyelids to brusquely pop wide open. When he exhaled, an unfamiliar tingling sensation trickled from beneath his scalp to the bottom of his spine. Whoa was all he thought as his eyes relaxed back to their squinted position.
Attempting to intensify the strange high even further, the second hit JD took was stronger, longer, and deeper than the first, and seemed to inflame his lungs as he sucked greedily on the joint. His eyes widened again, stretching further than before. Upon exhalation of the poisonous mixture, he coughed violently, trying to dispel of the fatal smoke within him that seemed to be waging war against his lungs.
“You okay baby?” Martha said, her eyes filled with concern.
The lethal drugs must’ve been playing tricks on JD’s mind, because Martha’s words sounded like, “I’m going to kill you” to him.
Still coughing and now beginning to panic, JD leapt violently from the sofa, seemingly in a bewildered state of mind, his eyes looking as if they were about to burst out of his head.
Hoping to calm him down, Martha jumped from the sofa and ran to the kitchen while screaming, “It’s gone be okay baby! I’ma get you some water!”
Just then, his coughing fit seemed to subside a bit, but JD’s disoriented mind-state seemed to worsen. Martha’s words had sounded like, “I’ma kill you and yo’ whole family!”
With wide-open paranoid eyes keenly fixated on Martha’s back as she filled a glass with some tap water, JD moved stealthily towards the hallway. When Martha ran back into the living room with a tall glass of water, hoping it would be the antidote to JD’s temporary insanity, his hallucinations intensified. Oh my God, her eyes are glowing bright red like the devil! JD’s drug-induced mind played horrific tricks on him.
That demonic vision of Martha is the last recollection JD had of that ghastly night.
Days later when he was sobered up, sitting in the Leon County Jail, he refused to believe police authorities who insisted that he had set Martha on fire a few nights ago.
Ultimately pleading “no contest” to attempted murder charges, as advised by his court-appointed attorney, JD landed a 15 year prison bid for something he never recalled doing to Martha, the love of his life.
Available at Amazon.com or through any major book retailer. ISBN: 1-4120-8048-7
Copyright © 2007, Delivered From Evil, All Rights Reserved
