Preacher's Daughter: Chapter 1

The Present Day

The town of Calvary Hill lay on one of a series of hills in the extreme north area of Pennsylvania, near the Pennsylvania/New York border. It was one of those old mining communities a little over a four-hour drive northeast of Philadelphia and was one of many old mining communities that were abandoned in the late 20th century when coal mining in that region had ceased. Five of the towns were recently renovated and renamed, only not for the purpose of mining coal as the communities were originally created for, but because of other plans; the people had the town renovated and repopulated for life going into the mid-21st century. Calvary Hill was the central town, with the other four towns along with it, circling around like spokes of a wheel. Each “town”, such as it was, had their own police/fire station, but there was only one hospital that served all five towns, and that was in the center-point between all five towns like the hub point of a wheel.

Several years ago, the major cities were hit with a pandemic that made life in the big cities unbearable, with both a medical, social and governmental upheaval, so a banker brought up the sites of five old “ghost towns” that had little or no people living in them and people who moved there were able to buy the existing houses for pennies on the dollar and have them renovated to fit their individual style and taste, and more or less moved away from the new world order they believed was being set up, but in fact had fallen through at some point. But the towns were already set up and populated by that point in time.

Rachael Collins’ father was one of the first to move into the town and was one of those who gave the town its name; Calvary Hill and basically had first pick of the properties, which was a typical Bungalow style four-bedroom home that cost a song to buy and a mere $50,000 to fully renovate it. The large, covered porch extended all the way across the front of the house with the main door situated around the middle area. Two of the bedrooms looked out the front of the house; and had a connecting patio that went all the way across and two of the rooms looked out the back, and the house was warm and inviting. The second and neighboring property was a vacant lot on which the town built a church that could comfortably fit up to 200 people on any given Sunday, but as of the prior month’s official head count, there were slightly more than 20 people in attendance. The church itself was a classic Bible preaching church, with a bit of a progressive spin to it and the building itself had the look of classical small country church.

Rachael herself was just a few weeks short of turning 21 had long dirty-blonde hair that extended to the middle of her back, green eyes with multiple earrings in each ear. At her last medical exam, she weighed in at 115 pounds and had a height of 5’2”. Braces she once wore, now were gone, and her skin cleared up to the point it was almost glowing. Despite having a British ancestry, only a vague hint of the accent existed, as she had picked up the Philly brogue instead, because that’s what she was around for the first 16 years of her life before moving to Calvary Hill five years prior.

Her sister Dawn, who was five years her junior, however, had retained a stronger hint of the British accent and had thick long reddish-blonde hair and blue eyes, was around 5’0” and was a few pounds heavier than she should have been for her height, all of which accumulated around her belly, which made her look like she was something she wasn’t.

Rachael worked the second shift at the Calvary Hill Diner, which was a typical classical roadside diner with an art deco look that had silver stainless steel paneling and could typically hold around 25 people. It was open for two shifts with the first shift going from 6am till 2pm and the second shift went from 2 until around 10 pm, with the last customer being served at 9:00 so that everybody could be out of there by 10. She got the job almost on the day she moved there when she turned 16. She started out as a trainee for 4 hours a night 3 nights a week, then when she turned 20, she was able to train to become a full waitress which gave her 8 hours a day for 5 days a week.

The Diner was located on Main Street, such as it was, while it was the main thorough fair through the six blocks that the town was made up of, traffic was less than spectacular, as the hub of towns themselves was almost the final destination of the highway extension that didn’t extend into the next state.

The town did have a gas station, which again was a classical deco building, complete with the classical 1950’s style gas pumps that were there from when the station was first built. The station was run by a giant Russian woman everybody called Olga and was located directly across the street from the diner. The woman stood at 7’0” tall and Rachael swore that one day she saw her lift the front end of some old 1970’s muscle cars by her bear hands with ease. As big and strong as Olga was, she was also just as beautiful, if she had a smaller frame, she could have become a top model, but there wasn’t much call for a 7'0” model even though she had golden blonde hair and a nice body, so she found a job working with models and bodies of a different type.

The total population of the town at last census was a little under 500 people, and most everybody knew everybody else, even the local police, which had a grand total of 6 people working at each of the five stations one located in each town, with most stations being just a converted office or store. There were three shifts of a single officer on patrol, and one desk officer per shift at each station. There was a Captain Greene who oversaw all five stations but pretty much she serviced the stations on a rotation, one day a week at each station, with most of that doing whatever paperwork that required her attention. Crime was all but non-existent, and in fact, over the five years that the town existed, there was no crime to speak of, oh sure, the occasional speeder or shoplifter, but nothing worth mentioning, in fact, Captain Greene feared that the officers wouldn’t know what to do if a real crime had occurred.

Rachael sat on the little bench outside the diner and sipped at her cup of coffee that had a touch of Irish Cream in it and watched as Officer Chen drive by on patrol. Off duty, or when people talked to her casually, she went by her first name Natsuko, a name which most people have morphed into Natty. But if she was in her official officer mode, she went by Officer Chen. 99.999999% of the time though most people who knew her just called her Natty both in and out of uniform. Natsuko was well into her 40’s with long black hair and black eyes. The two waved at each other as the car continued its afternoon patrol.

Next to Rachael sat a woman in her early 30’s with long, seemingly endless curly red hair, her body had several tattoos which were Occult-like in nature, one of which was a pentagram on her arm that she tried to keep out of Rachael’s view early on in their friendship, but knew it was a lost cause. She learned that if she didn’t say anything about Rachael wearing a sterling silver crucifix around her neck along with some other piece of what seemed to be nothing more than costume jewelry Rachael had favored and had a Bible app on her iPad that she always had with her, then she knew that Rachael would not say too much about the pentagram tattoo. She smoked on her cigarette and tried to blow it out her mouth so that it wouldn’t be carried over to Rachael, who while she did have the occasional cigarette usually around mid-shift, didn’t like having it drift into her face, either.

Rachael looked at her watch, it was going on mid-shift anyway, and she glanced over to Rosemary, then the pack that sat between them. She waited for a nod from Rosemary before sliding a single cigarette out of the pack.

“I don’t know how you do it!” Rosemary said, as she watched Rachael pull the one and only cigarette she would smoke for the day out of the pack.

“Do what?”

“Smoke just one cigarette a day,” Rosemary looked at Rachael, “I’m lucky if I can keep myself down to one pack a day let alone one cigarette a day.”

“Eh, even this one I might only smoke part of and save the other part for later on,” Rachael teased as she barely even smoked the one she had.

“So, how are things going on the boyfriend front?”

“To tell the truth,” Rachael sighed, “I’m actually making out fairly good. OK, no real boyfriend in this particular hamlet--.”

“Not there aren’t any guys who don’t like you. Little Jimmy likes you.”

“Little Jimmy?” Rachael barked. “Oh, the 16-year-old kid who comes around. I feel like setting him up with Dawn…which really isn’t a bad idea.”

“Uh--. Then Chef likes you.”

“He has kids that are older than me.”

“If you want to go that way, there’s always me!” Rosemary placed her hand on Rachael’s knee seductively and smiled.

Rachael jumped away with an “EEW-KAY.” She had to do all she could to keep herself from freaking out and seeming homophobic, which she wasn’t. Rachael did like Rosemary as a person and a friend and knew full well that the woman was pan-sexual as well as being into the Occult. As a Christian she had things to say about both, and already has, but to keep her as a friend, she had to make a few allowances. “Let’s just keep our relationship strictly as friends.”

“Not talking about a full relationship here, just a diversion,” Rosemary leaned into Rachael and leaned her head on her shoulder, she wanted to kiss Rachael so much, it hurt.

Rachael looked at Rosemary, her face hardened. “No,”

“Let me guess,” Rosemary leaned her face into Rachael’s, poised for a kiss, “preacher’s daughters ain’t supposed to know that kind of love!”

Rachael took that comment as an insult. “Rosemary, for crying out loud!”

“I’m sorry,” Rosemary said, “I forgot that maybe you took that vow of celibacy thing at your church, and you take it way too seriously.”

“We officially don’t do that at my church, we're not that kind of church,” Rachael said, knowing that Rosemary was only making matters worse, “but I still took one on a personal level.”

“So, you’re going to be a celibate all your life? No boyfriend, no girlfriend, no animal friend nobody special?”

“That’s just it,” Rachael frowned as she began to play with the piece of costume jewelry, “there already is that somebody special back in Philly. There was this guy who was just exactly my age that I was madly in love with. He lived next door and I knew he had a thing for me. We had a view of one another’s bedrooms through the windows, and once or twice I knew he noticed me undressing and I kind of played up to it to see how he would react.”

“I see.”

“Not to get dirty about it,” Rachael sighed with a blush, “I liked how he reacted. I knew then that Clark was the one for me. When we moved to Calvary Hill, I wanted so much for him to come with us I wanted it in the worst way, but for certain reasons that I completely understood he couldn’t follow.”

“You try looking this Clark up on Social Media?”

“We talk on Facebook a little bit, but you know it’s not the same.”

“Oh, I see. Never knew that, even after almost 5 years.” Rosemary had learned something new about Rachael. “Hopefully when whatever his reasons for staying back in Philly are fulfilled, he’ll come looking for you.”

“That would be nice,” Rachael sighed, “but even with us being in contact, it’s been almost five years.”

Rosemary began to wonder a few things, “What were his reasons for staying in Philly?”

“Oh,” Rachael went over the list in her head, “one thing was, he was sort of forced into being the caretaker for his mother who had him later in life, much later, she was like in her early 60’s when she had him and was literally an oops! She was very sickly and was supposed to be on her deathbed twice during the time that I knew Clark.”

“Why couldn’t she be put into some sort of a nursing home?”

“From the way I understand it, putting her into a nursing home wasn’t an option because she had a living will with two stipulations. One was no resuscitation, and another was no long-term care facilities.”

“So, Clark is stuck with caring for her.”

“On the upside, he is at least getting paid by a service, at least he was when I moved away, and as far as I know despite having an older sister, he will get any money from the house when she dies.”

“If he were to come back into your life right now, how would you react?”

Rachael smiled, knowing she didn’t have to say anything. But deep down she knew she would be the happiest person on planet Earth.

“Listen you have your mode of faith,” Rosemary said, “and I have mine.”

“Yeah, you’re into that Occult sh-tuff.”

Rosemary caught the slip, but she let it go with merely an evil eye. “Yes. But despite all our differences in faith. There is one thing we have in common in both.”

“What would that be?” Rachael scrunched her nose up.

“Prayer. Yes, it’s to different deities for variously distinct reasons, but we both pray; and we both believe that prayer can be a powerful thing.”

“But I don't believe prayer is like a magic wand that gives you what you want when you want,” Rachael said, “even I know that!”

“Are you sure about that?” Rosemary smiled.

Rachael looked confused.

“Your own Bible tells the story of a man who was dead and in the grave for several days.”

“I know, his name was Jesus.”

“Him too,” Rosemary waved nonchalantly, “but there was another, before him. He was a friend or cousin or something or other of Jesus, and Jesus came to his grave and prayed three words.”

“Lazarus come forth.”

“And Lazarus immediately came out of the tomb in which he was buried, correct?”

“Yes,”

“Tonight, when you say whatever you say during your bedtime prayers make a “Lazarus come forth” prayer and let me know how it turns out.”

Carolyn Collins was a woman of 42 but had the looks and demeanor of someone who was 10 years younger. Like her daughter Rachael, she had the same blonde hair only her eyes were a crystal blue, and almost the same general shape of the eyes and nose. It was so much so, that with only a little effort, they could pass themselves off more as sisters than mother and daughter. The only difference was in the cut of the hair. Where Rachael preferred to wear her hair down with a part to one side, and pushed back, Carolyn preferred a slightly fancier bun with bangs over her eyes.

Carolyn liked her teas and coffees so much so that she opened a coffee shop that she called “Tote the Tea”, which sat across the street from the community park, a small block of land that housed a rather large octagonal gazebo lined with benches on the inside, behind which there was a small stream from which people were able to fish from if they were so inclined.

She knew that Rachael always came from work at precisely 10:15 every night that she worked, almost like clockwork, and she always had a cup of herbal tea ready for her when she got home. This time though, Rachael looked a little distraught.

“Hello,” Carolyn said in an almost thick British accent, which marked another difference between mother and daughter, she never lost the accent like her daughter did, “how was your day?”

“It was a day like any other day, dinner rush from 4 – 6, then pretty much nothing for the last four hours,” Rachael forced on a smile, “you know how it goes, same sh-tuff different day.”

“You were thinking of him again, weren’t you?” Carolyn handed Rachael the cup of tea and looked at the piece of costume jewelry Rachael only put on when she was thinking about Clark.

“Who?” Rachael tried to pretend that she didn’t know what her mother was talking about, but they were too much the same, and it was sometimes said that there was some sort of a psychic link between the two as with twins. In many ways they were sort of twins separated by a span of 21 years.

“Don’t try to fool me, Mrs. Rachael Johnson,” Carolyn flipped her fingers at the piece of costume jewelry, “you had some of his pictures out looking at them this morning, and I know you were thinking about him earlier this evening.”

“How do you know?”

“First of all, the diner and my tea shop share the same parking lot, so I could see you and Rosemary talking.”

“You saw us... talking?” She forgot that her mother’s tea shop was only a few shops down, if she could see her talking, then she could see her smoking. “Just the talking, though, right?”

Carolyn already knew before then that Rachael smoked, but it wasn't a lot, so she shrugged it off. “And while I couldn’t hear every word that was said, I do have the ability to lip read quite accurately, enough to know that you were talking to her about Clark.”

“I see,”

“Listen, you know that I don’t agree with a lot of what Rosemary tries to tell you and push onto you on many levels, but I do agree with her on this one thing; pray about it. Back in Philly, I know Clark loved you and you loved him, he wanted to marry you even then. And to tell you the truth, if you would have persuaded him to come with us, that would have happened.”

“I had just turned 16, would father have allowed that?”

“Under the circumstances,” Carolyn winced, “yes. I was for it, he wasn’t exactly against it, and Clark had become like a son to your father, and your father was the father Clark never really had, because he died when Clark was only 5.”

“Why then when we moved, did he want to stay in Philly?”

“Because of Clark’s mother. You know of her living will, and you know about the two important things.”

Rachael nodded. “I know all of that.”

“There was a third item that I don’t think you knew about; that being she wanted to die at home in her own room, that home and room being the house in Philly, and yes that address and room were specifically stated.”

“And Clark is more or less forced to care for her until she dies.”

“Yes.”

“Tonight, I do want you to pray for Clark, pray that his obligations to his mother will come to an end, and that he will find his way back to you.”

“But--,” Rachael was confused, “wouldn’t that mean that basically you’re having me pray that Clark’s mother would die, since that is the only way that his obligations to his mother will “come to an end”? As Christians, should we even be praying for someone’s death?”

“If you put it that way; praying for a person to die, no, of course not. But if you look at it this way; her death will allow you and Clark to begin the life you and he so much want to start, and that’s what you want.”