Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Cross (as in the Cross of Christ) (08/17/06)
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TITLE: Two Words; The Cross | Previous Challenge Entry
By Callie Martin
08/19/06 -
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“Yes, and I’m not telling you again to stop fiddling with that cross.
I’ve been sitting in this filthy, cramped hotel room with five other people for two days. Since our kidnapping, my best friend, Millie and I have been locked in this room waiting for the telephone to ring. Everyone is waiting for the telephone to ring. We are handcuffed to a dingy radiator by one wrist and can only sit on the floor with out backs against the dirty wall.
Only one of them will talk to us. We call him Moe behind his back. The other two are Curly and Larry and they play cards and ignore everything else.
“Why does it”?
“Why does what”?
“Bother you so much.”
“What are you talking about? Can’t you just be quiet? Geez, you are the most irritating woman I have ever met”?
“My cross; you can’t take your eyes off of it and it bothers you that I hold it. I just wonder why it would bother someone like you. Are you a Christian”?
“No.”
“Were you ever”?
“No.”
“I think you’re lying. I’ll bet your mother wears a necklace a lot like this. I’ll bet when you see me holding this cross and praying, you think of her.”
“Do you want to know what I’ve been praying for”?
“Don’t care.”
“Okay, just trying to pass the time here.” I hold the diamond cross necklace my father gave me up to my lips and watch Moe. My family has no money and my father got a second job for six months to buy me this cross for graduation. Millie’s father got her a car and paid cash.
“What”?
"What what”?
“What are you praying for? I would assume that it’s that this chick’s rich, fat dad sends the money and you get out of here.”
“Nope, not even close. I do want to get out of here but that’s not what I’m praying for.”
I notice he narrows his eyes like maybe he’s dealing with a crazy person. But I think I have his interest.
“Okay, I give up. What have you been praying for”?
“You.”
“Me”?
“Yep, you.”
He snorts a laugh and says “Now that’s a first. Are you praying that I’ll drop dead of a heart attack or shoot myself and my partners instead of you two”?
“No, actually, I’ve been thinking about your mother and wondering what she would pray for right now. There’s power in a praying mother, you know”?
He doesn’t say anything but I can see this has upset him.
“I think she would ask God to protect her son, to forgive him for any wrong doings. I think she would ask God to reach down and touch your heart and restore you into His family. I think she would thank God for giving his Son to die on the cross for her son’s sins. I think if she could see inside this room right now, she would be holding onto her cross and praying – hard.”
Moe stares at me, looks away for a long time, and then looks back. There’s one tear on his left cheek. He stands up, claps his hands, and says, “Okay boys, enough is enough. We’re outta here.”
The two in the corner only pause for a minute before they stand, gather their cards, put on their jackets and leave. None of them say a word to us.
I poke Millie until she wakes up and when she sees we’re alone she asks, “Where’d they go? How are we going to get loose from this radiator”?
“I don’t know Millie, but at this point I believe that God will provide.”
“Yeah, right. Do you think they will be back”?
“Nope.”
“Why would they just leave like that”?
“The power of a praying mother.”
“Huh? You’re not a mother.”
“Never mind, I’ll tell you later.”
As I squirm around looking for anything to use to pick the lock on the handcuffs, I notice something shiny on the floor inches from my foot; it’s the key. As we leave the room, the phone starts to ring.
We were interviewed over and over again during the next week. Each time when they ask me why the kidnappers would just leave, I would say the same thing; “Two words, the Cross.”
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The only suggestion I would have for it is to make clear who is talking earlier. I somehow thought it was the hostages talking among themselves at first.
Again, lovely!