The Chosen (4 page)

“I’m the President, and I’ll decide how much authority I have!” Quincy shouted.

This was a side of President Quincy that Candice Peters had never seen before, and she realized that she had misjudged him. For the first time she felt a twinge of respect for this man who had such a clear grasp of the obstacles they were facing and knew exactly what needed to be done to remedy the situation.
Quincy saw the
flicker of admiration in her eyes, and from that day
forward, they enjoyed a
more ami
c
able relationship.

Chapter 6

“
P
ush, Kris. Come on, Honey. Push.”
Karyn
Conners
tried to sound confident as she coached her sister. In fact, she was terrified. Watching Kris give birth under these conditions was awful; she wanted to help her, but other than her love and concern for her big sister, she had very little to offer. She silently thanked God that Mich
ael was there. He was a doctor—al
though he was not trained in obstetrics.

Kris was conc
entrating hard on the delivery, trying to shut out everything that both Michael and Karyn were saying. From the moment she had realized that she was pregnant, she had begun praying that s
he and her
baby
would be
safe during the labor and delivery, and when her pains had begun
that morning
,
she had withdrawn emotionally from everything going on around her. She was very thankful that Michael and Karyn were with her, but she knew that, in the end, it would be just Jesus and her; He was the only one who could safely deliver her child into the troubled world in which
they were
living.

Kris was sitting on the pallet that served as her and Michael’s bed, and the perspiration was running down her face and dripping into her eyes. It wasn’t time to push yet; she
knew that, and she tried to control her breathing—slow deep
breaths; stay calm; stay focused; slow deep breaths.

As Kris waited, her mind went back to the day Michael had asked her to marry him. She had been in love with him for
more than a year
—since
they
had
both liv
ed
in the federal e
mployee
’s
housing of the
FMPD, but it was only after
they had
left that Michael
had
told her about his feelings for her.
She wanted desperately to marry him, but the whole world was upside down, and she could not justify taking such a big step when their lives were in turmoil.

“I love you,” she had told him, “but I don’t know how we can begin a life together under these circumstances. Either of us could be arrested at any
time
. It’s funny, I always wanted a husband and children, but I got involved with Ben and wasted seventeen years of my life living in sin with him.
I wish I had met you when I was twenty-two.”

“But you didn’t, and besides that, when you were twenty-two
,
I was already married to Maddie,” Michael had responded. “We met now because this was God’s timing. He knew that Maddie would die young and that you and Ben would never marry. He knew that at this moment you and I would be exactly where we are, and He
’
s given us a chance for happiness
—a
chance to love again. If we don’t do this, we may not get another chance.” 

“I know you’re right
,” Kris had said. “I know you loved Madelyn, but I’m not sure I ever loved Ben. I had romanticized our relationship and convinced myself that
I
was
in
love, but I never loved Ben the way I love you. I realize that after having wasted my
child-bearing years
, children are no longer an option, and that’s probably a good thing. I wouldn’t want to bring a child into this world with all the evil that’s going on.”

Michael
had
t
a
k
en
hold of Kris’ shoulders and turned her to face him. Looking directly into her eyes, he said, “
I don’t know whether God has children for us, but if He does,
you
must be willing to accept them.
Children are a gift from God, and that’s true in good times and bad. If you become pregnant,
it’ll be because
God has chosen to bless us with the most precious gift that He can give a married couple.
Remember this, Kris: If Christians refuse to have children,
our
faith will die
with us.
It is both our duty and our privilege to prepare the next generation.
”

It was now nine months and three weeks to the day since she and Michael had been married under a canopy with Father Nathan O’Brien officiating.
“Well,” Father O’Brien had commented when they had asked him to perform the ceremony, “it’s strange circumstances, indeed, that require a Catholic priest to marry a Messianic Jew and an Evangelical Christian, but it
’s
been said that ‘desperate times call for desperate measures
,’
and times don’t get much more desperate than these. Yes, I’ll do it.”
 

Michael and Kris were both glad that Nathan O’Brien had agreed to perform the ceremony. He and Michael
had gone to
college together and had become instant friends. Michael had been serious and a little brooding, but Nate, as everyone called him, was always bubbling over with laughter. He was tall and blond and tan—the image of a “California boy”. Girls were crazy about him because in addition to his amazing good looks, he was friendly and warm and seemed to be genuinely interested in everyone.

Michael and Nate had met when they were both twenty
-one. Michael was already married to Maddie, and Nate had already decided that after he graduated he was going to become a priest. Both men were intelligent and interested in a variety of subjects, and
they shared
a deep faith in Jesus
Christ.
They could never agree on the finer points of their respective beliefs, however, and they spent long hours debating the differences. They spent even longer hours playing one-on-one basketball. For two athletic young guys who needed to burn off energy after a day spent in classes, the basketball court offered the perfect way to unwind.

Michael and Nate had always remained friends, and as they matured they realized that they shared many core beliefs. They shared the same views of the sanctity of life and of traditional marriage. They valued freedom and liberty, and neither was afraid to speak his mind. Each year they discovered that they were more alike than they had originally thought.

Kris’ pains were growing stronger. They radiated from the center of her lower back toward her stomach, reaching further with each contraction. With the last contraction the pain had become an excruciating band that circled her body, and she now felt her muscles working to force the baby
out of h
er. It was time to push. She took a deep breath, held it in, and pushed with all her strength. Once, twice, three times, and then an enormous sense of relief
, and the pain stopped.

The baby was crying, and Michael looked happier than she had ever seen him. “It’s a boy! It’s a boy!” Karyn was shouting. In that moment every doubt Kris had
ever
entertained about becoming a mother
evaporat
ed.

After Karyn and Michael had cleaned up the mess from the delivery, they left Kris alone with her
child so that she could rest. She was much too wide awake to consider napping,
but
she was glad to have this opportunity to talk to her son. “Your name is Aaron Mitchell Linton,” she began.
“
Your daddy’s middle name is Aaron, but before I married him my last name was Mitchell. I wanted to name you after your
daddy, but I wanted you to have my name too, and now I’m going to tell you a secret that no one else knows. I’m going to call you ‘Mitch’ because I think it’s the best name in the world.

“I’m going to tell you something else too. It’s not a secret, but you’ll be surprised to find this out. T
his
is my birthday. I’m forty-three years old today. I know that seems old to you, but it
’
s really not very old. But the best part is that you and I have the same birthday, and we’ll always have a special giant
party to celebrate. No matter what happens, Mitch, you are the best birthday present that I will ever get in my entire life. I will love you forever, and I will always thank God for sending you to me.
”

∞

Kris was so
happy
with her new son that for the next few months she had little time for anything else.
She knew that Mitch was special—that God had a purpose for his life that would involve saving many people. She was certain that God would protect him so that he could do his work, but she wasn’t so sure about her own future. She feared that she might die before Mitch was grown and that he would suffer because she was not there to take care of him. Every day she prayed that God would allow her to live long enough to raise him.

It wasn’t just her natural mother’s love that made her believe that Mitch was special. Everyone recognized that he was different. Even Keith, who did not like to think about God being too personally involved in people’s lives, admitted that Mitch was destined to do
“
something big”.

I
n
mid
November
,
Keith announced that he had to “check something out” and that he would be gone for a day or two. He said that he was following up on a lead that Jessie had
given him and would tell the rest of the family all about it when he returned.

Three days later his dusty
J
eep pulled up in front of the trailer
,
and he burst through the front door looking as though he had just won the lottery. “I found a house that
’s
perfect for all of us!” he exclaimed. “Jessie spotted it when he was flying missions, and I wanted to check it out on the ground, but it’s perfect.”

“What are you talking about?” Kris inquired.

“Well, Jessie saw this big old house out in the middle of nowhere. Every time he did a flyover he looked around to see whether anyone was living there, but there were never any signs of life.
He finally decided that it would be safe for me to go check it out in person. 

“It’s a huge one-story made out of concrete. Concrete floors, walls, the whole package. There’s a little watch tower on the roof where you can see for miles in every direction.  When I was looking around, I discovered a
tunnel that you can access
through a trap door in one of the
rooms
.  It has concrete stairs leading into a concrete tunnel that I could stand up in. I followed it several hundred yards. It exits at a spot in the desert behind a pile of boulders big enough to hide anyone
coming out.
Whoever built the place wanted privacy and an escape route. It’s probably a hundred years old
,
and
it
doesn’t look like anyone’s been there for years. 

“You’re always saying that God makes provision for us in advance; well, if He had built a hideout especially for us, this would be it. When Mike and Jeff get back, I’m going to talk to them about
heading out there ASAP.”

Kris felt an icy-cold fear spring up in her chest.
She knew that
if they were supposed to go there, something really bad was about to happen.

∞

Keith had been right about the house. Karyn, Jeff, and their children took one wing
,
and Kris, Michael, and the baby took the other. Although there was plenty of room on the ground floor, Keith insisted on taking over the watch tower, which was actually a fifteen by fifteen foot
upstairs
room with a three-hundred sixty degree view.

One day when Michael and Jeff were away
,
Kris told Mitch, “After I married daddy I wanted to have a big house, but I didn’t think we would ever be able to get one. Now just look at us! We have a huge house, and Aunt Karyn and Uncle Jeff and your cousins live just down the hall, and Uncle Keith lives upstairs. We are the luckiest people in the whole world.” Kris laughed out loud as she looked around the dark
, depressing
concrete building which more resembled a
prison
than a private residence.
Following her lead,
Mitch squealed with laughte
r, and she picked him up and kissed his chubby cheeks. “I don’t care what anyone says,” she told him. “I love you and daddy so much, and even though things are hard, I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Every day I thank God for protecting us and bringing us to this place. Some day this will all be behind us, but for now I
’
m thankful for
every day I have with my two men.
The only thing I couldn’t stand would be
for
us
to be
separated.
”