THREE HUSBANDS

Stuart woke up and looked at the clock. It was 7:15 am! He had to be at work by 8:00 am. On the way to the bathroom, he yelled down the stairs,

“Sue, why didn’t you come upstairs and wake me? My alarm didn’t go off. Now I’m going to be late for work.”

“I’ve been busy getting the children ready for school. Their school bus will be here in about ten minutes.”

Stuart didn’t hear much of what she said because, as he went into the bathroom, he slammed the door. He came back out several minutes later grumbling about what a mess the children left in the bathroom. When he went back into the bedroom, he slammed the door.

He had trouble buttoning his shirt. The tie was frayed; he had to find another one. One of the socks had a hole in it; he had to go back to the dresser for another pair. Finally, he was dressed. To emphasize his frustration with all the delays getting dressed for work, he slammed the door as he left the bedroom.

Sue was at the outside door waving goodbye and blowing kisses to their two small children who were boarding the school bus.

“Where is my breakfast? Didn’t I tell you that I was going to be late for work? What would we do if I lost my job?”

“Stuart, you are always angry. Anger comes from Satan. If you would only let Jesus into your life, you would start to experience some joy.

“I was busy getting the children ready for school. I didn’t think you’d have time to eat breakfast. Here’s a granola bar and a cereal bar. Take them with you and eat them in the car on the way to work. I’ve already poured a cup of coffee for you into a foam cup.”

Stuart took the cup, the granola bar, and the breakfast bar from her without a thank you. He put them all into one hand so that he could slam the outside door as his parting gesture.

“Jesus, my foot. I’m the one who goes into work every day and earns the money to provide a home, nice clothes, and food for her and the children.”

When he got into the car, he slammed the car door. In the car and driving, he was eating the granola bar, drinking coffee, and cursing every animate object along the way. He was going much too fast on the main street through their subdivision. Ahead there was a STOP sign. Yet another hindrance.

“There are never any cars on that cross street.”

He slowed down, looked both ways hurriedly, and sped into the intersection. Half way through he saw a green car that had come out of nowhere. He slammed into the driver’s side door of that car with his car’s front end. The impact threw him against the steering wheel, triggering the air bag.

When he extricated himself from the air bag, he walked around to the other car. He could tell at a glance that the other driver was dead. There was blood everywhere. He called the police and ambulance from his cell phone. Then he walked back to his own car and slammed the door.

**********************

The wind whooshed into the room as Harold Staynt opened the front door. He was dressed in brown trousers, pale yellow dress shirt with a dark green Tartan plaid tie, and a rust brown sport jacket. The effect he wanted, they wanted, was friendly, relaxed - not business like or professional. Across the room, at the bottom of the stairs was his wife Mariah, clad in a pink chenille robe. The wind parted it, revealing a gold cross on a chain around her neck. As she clutched the robe together, a new, gold wedding ring glistened on her hand.

“Mariah, how can I leave the house and face a day filled with doing Ammer Insurance Company’s dirty work with such an inviting reminder of what I’m leaving behind?”

“I’ll be here waiting, when you come home. And I’ll be praying for you while you are gone. Count on it!”

He smiled and almost skipped to his vehicle. The wind gusted as he was opening the car door. He backed out of the driveway. As he was driving, he went over in his mind the three visits scheduled for this morning.

Mrs. Hermannson was first. Her husband’s funeral was just last week. Mr. Hermannson had a life insurance policy with the Company for $500,000.

“Harold, we don’t want to have to pay out that much money in one lump sum. Do whatever it takes to persuade her to put the proceeds of his policy into one of our annuity plans. There will be a nice commission in it for you.”

If Mrs. Hermannson had other plans for the money, Harold would report that. The Company would then send a “specialist” to try to convince her.

His next visit would be to Mr. Elkins, who had been a passenger in a car insured by them. There had been an accident and the driver was killed. Mr. Elkins was badly injured. The Company paid his medical expenses. Now, they wanted Harold to offer the injured man $50,000.

“If he wants more than that, or if he talks about getting a lawyer, make him think that anything more would have to come out of the widow’s estate.”

The rear passenger window would not close all the way. The wind was roaring in and swirling around to the back of his neck. He thought of his last call for the morning.

Sister Angelica was a sweet, elderly nun. She had been hit by a driver they insured while she was crossing the street. The driver was drunk. The nun’s collarbone, right arm, left knee, and left ankle had been broken. She would be a long time recovering, and probably would never be able to work again.

“Offer her $25,000 – no more. What does a nun need with money? Besides, she won’t sue. It isn’t Christian!”

From the corner of his eye, Mr. Staynt saw, too late, a car barreling through the stop sign on the intersecting street. The car was going to hit him! There was a crash, breaking glass, crumpling metal. A scream started in his lungs, but never reached his dying lips.

*************************

Police Sergeant Paul Carbon went outside for his newspaper.

“It looks like rain.”

Rain clouds stalled over the roof of his life these past months. Several months ago his wife of twenty-eight years had died. After that thunder-clap, the rain had poured! He was passed over for lieutenant in favor of a younger, college trained man. The washer and dishwasher both had quit working. The roof was leaking. He was learning to cook, but half the meals he fixed weren’t fit for dog food. He depended on the dry cleaners to wash or clean and press his clothes and uniforms. That didn’t leave much money to eat in restaurants.

He poured dry cereal into a bowl; there wasn’t any milk in the refrigerator.

“I guess I can pretend they are potato chips.”

Just then the phone rang. It was Marge, the dispatcher.

“Paul, I know that you aren’t scheduled to come on duty for more than half an hour, but we have the report of an auto collision at the intersection of Maplewood and Trace. The other squad cars are either out on call or not answering. Would you cover it? I’ve already called the ambulance and it’s on its way.”

“Please, Lord, don’t let there be any deaths. I’m still all torn up inside over Nancy’s death. She was trusting Christ and I know she is with Him now; but looking at death is hard for those of us who are still here below. Even Jesus wept in the presence of death. Don’t make me face it yet.”

Maplewood and Trace was just six blocks away. He left the bowl of cereal untouched, put on his duty belt with pistol and baton, and grabbed his uniform coat. As he stepped outside, the rain was beginning.

“Great! This old police cruiser leaks water through the side window, and somehow it runs down onto my left leg and foot.”

When he arrived at the accident scene, he saw that it was bad. One car had the hit the other car broadside and had “T-boned” it. The paramedic came up to him.

“The driver in that car is dead. I was waiting for you, in case you need to take pictures. Then we’ll use cutting tools to pry the door open so we can remove the body. The other driver is over there, standing in that store entrance to get out of the rain.”

“Thank you, Steve.”

SGT Carbon went to the patrol car for the camera and tape measure. After taking a half dozen photos of the two cars from different perspectives, he measured the distance from the stop sign to the point of impact. By then, he was soaking wet. He walked over to where the other driver was standing. The driver spoke first.

“Now that you are finally here, I can give you my name, address, and telephone number. Then I am going to call my wife and tell her to pick me up and take me home.”

After taking the driver’s name, address, and phone number, SGT Carbon said,

“Tell me what happened.”

“I was driving to work. I stopped at that stop sign, looked both ways, and started off. That green car just came out of nowhere. I couldn’t stop!”

“There are no marks indicating you tried to stop. If you had stopped at the stop sign, your car could not have reached the speed necessary to cause that much damage to the other car,.”

“I tell you I STOPPED!”

“A judge will decide that. Let’s take a walk through the rain to my patrol car. I’m placing you under arrest for vehicular manslaughter. After the cell door slams shut behind you at the jail, I have to go to the new widow of that driver you just killed.”

“Lord, I don’t know how I can do it. Please go with me. Please, could You be the One to tell her through me?”