| General Fiction posted February 9, 2025 | Chapters: |
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One Man's Calling
A chapter in the book Ben Paul Persons
Ben Paul Persons, ch. 26
by Wayne Fowler
In the last part Ben Paul and Sylvia returned to Skagway, determined to catch the killer.
Chapter 26
Ben Paul and Sylvia’s arrival on Alaska Airlines was just in time to hear the announcement.
“Ladies and gentlemen, an emergency has been declared. Please proceed to the lobby section of the airport and exit the building. This is an emergency. All outbound flights have been delayed indefinitely. Inbound flights have been either delayed or diverted. This is an emergency. Please remain calm.”
Ben Paul and Sylvia looked at one another in disbelief. Then they looked around to see if anyone needed ministering. Seeing no one, they were as anxious to be on their way as the airport was for them to exit the building.
“Let’s let the crowd dissipate,” Sylvia suggested to a receptive Ben Paul. “Right now, I wouldn’t mind being blown up and going to see Jesus.” She did a little gasp, surprised that she’d ever say such a thing out loud.
Ben Paul reached for her hand. “I want to be holding your hand when we go,” he said.
“Guess we’d better go,” Sylvia said, “there might be somebody that needs you!”
Ben Paul smiled. “Let’s go see if Tank is still waiting for us.”
“I wish we were flying to Denver.”
Ben Paul looked over his shoulder at the abandoned airport building. “Maybe not. Might be a lot safer on the ground.”
Tank was waiting patiently.
+++
“What’re you writing?” Ben Paul asked as Sylvia made herself comfortable with a three-ring binder full of paper that she’d purchased when they’d stopped for lunch.
“Starting with notes. That terrible book about your father in Chicago made me think of it. And then when I saw his stone and wondered whether you might want a bigger, better stone and what you might have inscribed made me do more wondering.”
“So?”
“So, I’m starting with notes,” she said. “Like: born near Flippin, Arkansas in Marion County in 1862. Bible College in St. Louis in 1880. Santa Fe Trail by wagon train on Red, 1883.”
“Ah, I get it,” Ben Paul said. “Slim found you because you wrote that history book of Creede. You’re a writer.”
“What was the first town your father landed in? Oh, of course, where he met and fell in love with my grandmother, Livvie.
“Arrived in Alpine, Colorado, in 1883.” Ben Paul smiled.
Sylvia wrote Creede and beneath she wrote the names that she and Ben Paul could remember hearing about. The first to come to mind was Arville Johnston, and then Charlie Harper, followed by Sheriff J.D. Watson, Mason Sallinger, and Frankie. Neither Ben Paul nor Sylvia knew a last name. Next, Sylvia wrote Lake City and beneath that Arville Johnston again.
“This isn’t going to work. I’ll have to come up with a better way. There’s a whole lot between Creede and Lake City that even I know about – him getting shot and getting healed by the Indians, a stagecoach driver, a ranch owner… and Slim probably fit in there. I know quite a bit about when my grandmother was kidnapped and Ben rescued her but was shot, badly wounded. That was when he was taken to the Indian village and Jones became Ben’s helper and friend. Oh, Ben Paul… it’s too much! Your father did so much just in Colorado, And then he went to Chicago, and then San Francisco.”
“Where he was shanghaied to Hawaii, where he took over the ship and sailed it to Los Angeles. Before getting D.L. Moody and Billy Sunday to have a week of meetings in San Francisco.
“That’s where Tony Bertelli comes in. D.L. Moody remembered Ben Persons. Tony went to Moody’s Bible Institute, remember? Moody gave Tony a scholarship. He graduated and took that St. Louis church.”
“Where you came in,” Sylvia added softly. She looked at Ben Paul dumbfounded. “When we get home, you’re going to tell me everything. We’re going to write your father’s book. And your book.
“What are you going to call it?”
“How about One Man’s Calling?”
Ben Paul nodded.
+++
Almost four years later, Ben Paul rose from his chair. “I think I’ll turn in.”
Sylvia glanced to the window to see that it was still very light. The clock read 4:20. She watched as Ben Paul, the man she loved immediately and came to respect and admire quickly after, slowly ambled his way to the bedroom. He was thirteen years her senior and always suspected he would precede her, but still… Proposing to him had to have been divine intervention.
This was different. Her spirit bade her pay attention. She didn’t trust her voice. Wiping her eyes, she determined not to let Ben Paul see her crying. She changed into her sleepwear as Ben Paul sat on the bed’s edge. Then she walked to where Ben still sat and helped him get into his pajamas, knowing in her soul that it would be the last time. She was grateful that he did not seem to notice her single, uncontrollable sob.
After helping him into bed and tucking him in she heard him say, “I love you, Sylvie.”
“I love you.”
Ben Paul said nothing of her cracking voice.
She entered the bed from her side, sliding over to cuddle, where she remained until he took a final, gasping breath.
Sylvia allowed herself one minute of crying, the first half in a silent wail, the second gasping for air. “Lord, take me, too!”
It was not to be. She looked at Ben Paul a final time before getting up to do the things that must be done, the phone calls, the arrangements. She saw a figure at Ben Paul's side, a young man in his prime: Ben Persons. Sylvia knew that her Ben Paul was being taken to meet Jesus by his father, a man he’d never met, but had lived the same calling.
It has been pure joy writing the Ben Persons books. The 2 volumes have been tremendously improved by my wonderful FanStory friends. Thank you all. There is one stand out supporter (You know who you are), thank you and may the Lord bless you real good.
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