Chapter 14 Tribulation

Rachel finished the final touches on her first piece of work since moving to California. It was a short story taken from her larger work. After scrapping parts of her novel and then trying to tackle rewriting it, she had decided to take one of the best parts and develop it into a short story. She had letters already drafted and after typing them she'd begin sending out her story to publications. She was quite excited about it all. JJ had really praised her work. After some trepidation, she'd allowed Johnny and then Eric to read it as well. Both were quite impressed. To celebrate, Rachel decided to take some of her hoarded cash out of her account and go on a mini shopping spree. Humming to herself, she dressed in her favorite dress and heels. She stopped in the house to borrow the keys to the station wagon from JJ and left to enjoy an afternoon of browsing.

JJ spent her Saturday with the kids. It had not been a pleasant day so far. Nova had gotten into Brian's room and partially dismantled his Lego creation he had worked all week to create. "Aunt JJ! Nova ruined it!" he'd yelled from his doorway. Almost two, Nova had already begun to live up to the 'terrible twos'. Her new favorite retort was 'no', even if you asked her if she'd like a cookie. Things had gotten quiet for 10 minutes and it made JJ nervous. Making a quick check, she found Nova had used her child-sized rocking chair to reach the top of her parent's dresser. Hooking the rockers under the dresser to steady it, she'd then climbed up and gotten into JJ's make-up for the third time in two weeks. Nova had already been scolded and punished for this, but she persisted. I guess she inherited her father's tenacity JJ thought wearily. Now if she could just channel all that energy into a more positive way. Lipstick was smeared all over the top of the dresser and mirror, liberally sprinkled with face powered and blue eye shadow.

"Nova! What in heaven's name are you doing?" JJ had admonished her daughter. The enormity of the mess was overwhelming.

"I doing nuffing," she'd said looking up with peach lipstick smeared across her face and smudges on her clothes. Interspersed with lipstick were patches of blue eye shadow and face powder.

"Oh, you've been doing plenty young lady! And now you're lying too! It is bad to lie Nova and it is wrong to get into my make-up," JJ had replied exasperated as she gingerly carried her daughter towards the bathroom. Stripping off the smeared clothes, soon Nova was only clad in her thick training pants. After quickly reviewing Nova's transgressions, JJ gave her child three swats to her bottom. Although Nova could be stubborn, she hated anyone being upset with her. Her lip quivered and tears sprung into her eyes.

"Momma," she wailed plaintively and her little face crumpled.

JJ hugged her close saying, "I love you Nova. I'll always love you no matter what, but sweetie you need to remember to follow the rules. They are for your safety. Lying is wrong Nova."

"'kay Momma, I sorry," Nova answered through her sobs. Then for a few precious hours there was a delicious tranquility.

Later that day, Brian who was still mad about his Legos was teasing his sister. He rarely watched TV after the morning on Saturdays. He was more into riding his bike. However today, he knew Sesame Street would be on the public access channel. Nova loved it and normally he could care less about what she watched. Today, well he had a plan. He went into the living room and switched on the TV until he found a baseball game. Actually, Brian liked baseball, a lot. However, he liked to play baseball, or talk about baseball or attend a live game. Watching it on TV was about as exciting as watching paint dry. He sat down and pretended to be enthralled. In about 15 minutes, Nova woke up from her nap and came out with bedhead and her pink blanket ready to pile into Johnny's recliner and watch Sesame Street.

"Hi Bri'n," she murmmered. "Big Bird time, 'kay?"

Brian looked up. "I'm watching the game so you will have to miss it, squirt." He felt a little guilty when he saw the disappointment on her face. Then he recalled the destruction she caused to his Lego creation and hardened his resolve. "Tough luck."

"I want Big Bird, Bri'n," Nova insisted. From there the volume and intensity grew and shortly JJ heard the commotion from the laundry room near the very back of the house. Coming to the front of the house, she found two very irate kids arguing.

"Enough! I have had enough you two!" JJ sternly said. Taking in the situation she then asked, "Brian, since when do you watch sports on TV? You hate that." Brian shifted his weight from foot to foot. "So? What is up?"

"I was watching the game first," he insisted. "The rule is she has to wait until I'm done, right?" Brian tried to sound righteous, but his shame shone through.

It only took a few well worded questions from JJ to get to the bottom of the matter. Brian was sent to his room for the time being and bike privileges were suspended for the day.

In about 30 minutes, JJ headed to Brian's bedroom. "Brian, we need to talk," she began. He nodded. "I know Nova messing up your Legos was a big deal. Remember after she had to apologize I took her favorite doll away for the day?"

Brian answered quietly, "Yes, I know."

"Nova knows when your door is shut your room is off limits. Nova was punished for what she did. She even apologized to you. Honey, why did you pull that stunt with the TV?" JJ asked.

"Nova is a pest. It's gonna take forever to fix the damage. I was still mad," he answered crossly.

"Brian, do you remember your last Sunday school lesson? The one about forgiveness?" she prompted.

"Yeah," he answered.

"After someone wrongs you Brian, you need to forgive them. It frees you from bitterness and it frees the other person from shame," she explained. "God tells us to forgive."

Brian hung his head. "I know, but it's hard."

JJ pulled him into a hug. "Yes, baby it sure is, but you work at it, okay?" He nodded solemnly. It was quite a while later before he wandered out to the main room.

"Nova? I'm sorry about the TV," he said shuffling his feet. "You forgive me?"

Nova looked up. In an almost two-year old universe, that had happened ions ago. She smiled saying, "Uh huh and patted his face.

It was with a huge sigh of relief when JJ finally flopped down on the couch and flipped off her tennis shoes after baths and bedtime routines. She'd battled the vegetable wars and the toothpaste skirmish and mediated the bedtime story battle. Rachel breezed in with a new scarf, checked in with JJ and then retired to her room over the garage. A short time later, Johnny called from the station as he did most nights he worked a shift. Tonight was a bit later than normal which probably meant he'd just gotten in from an evening run.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver as she answered the phone.

"Hey Janes," rasped Johnny his voice sandpapered from smoke.

"Eat some smoke tonight?" she asked a bit concerned.

"More than I would have liked, but nothing to worry about," he'd answered. "Both Eddie and I have that sultry bedroom voice tonight," Johnny joked. He'd then added details about the hardware store fire they'd been called to extinguish two hours ago. "I am just waiting my turn for the shower and then I'm gonna crash. At least, that's the plan now. It has been a crazy shift Janes. We responded to a car wreck to find a boyfriend and a girlfriend in an all-out fist fight over whose fault it was. There were more injuries from the fight that the wreck. Then we rescued a pet pig that was stuck in a doggie door. Sheesh are pigs loud. Twice we put out a fire at the same house. Both times the fire was in the kitchen. The wife started a fire trying to cook a turkey. The husband started a grease fire frying fish. The kitchen is a total loss. I think that couple needs to just eat out. Then there was the kid that got stuck in a tree and when Al rescued him the kid bit him three times on the arm. Al can really move fast down a ladder, you know," he had finished with a chuckle."

"Yikes! Sounds much worse than my day, John. Our kids fussed and argued most of the day. Maybe someone put something in the water supply," she'd joked.

"Wouldn't surprise me Angel," he'd replied, "Not after today. I'll see you tomorrow. Night, I love you."

"Goodnight love," she'd answered. "I love you too."

"Goodnight sweetheart, see you tomorrow," he'd answered before hanging up.