Whispers
Evan woke up the next morning as refreshed as he’d ever felt. He got up, performed his daily routine, and found himself with a whole ten minutes before he actually had to leave. Being used to running a few minutes behind, he wasn’t sure what to do with them. It wasn’t that much extra time, so he grabbed his nearby Bible and started reading the first chapter of Hebrews.
Of course, by the time he had decided to do this, he had only made it to the third verse before he looked up at his VCR’s clock to see that it was time to go. Oh, well. Since he was using a pocket Bible, eh dropped it into his bag and headed out to the bus stop.
To his delight, three minutes earlier at the bus stop allowed him to catch an earlier bus that was running slightly behind. He climbed aboard and found a seat. I must be living right today, he smiled to himself. Evan arrived at his office with almost twenty minutes to spare, so he pulled out his pocket Bible and began to search for the verse thirty-two from yesterday morning’s message.
After thumbing through the first few chapters, he started to wonder if he’d heard the verse number wrong, too. The longest chapter in the first half of the book only had twenty-eight verses. He turned through a couple more pages. Aha! Chapter ten had a verse thirty-two:
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions:
Okay, he thought. That was no help. Let’s look at Eleven: thirty-two.
And what more shall I say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
That was definitely not it. Chapter twelve was a few verses short, as was the final chapter. He considered looking at all the twenty-twos, but he didn’t have time. A knock on his door saw to that.
“Hey, Evan. How’s your morning?” It was Mike Hoffman, one of his Human Resources co-workers.
“So far, so good,” he replied, closing his Bible. “What’s up?”
“Boss has a couple interviews for us to handle today. First one’s already here, if you’re ready.”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Bring him in here?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, that’d be great.”
“This one oughtta be rather interesting. From what I hear, this guy walked up a half hour ago, filled out the application on the spot, and handed it right back with his full resumé. Asked how soon could we give him an interview.”
“Interesting,” was all Evan could say as he tried to tune out the Twilight Zone theme playing in his head. No way. It couldn’t be. “Bring him in.”
“Alrighty, then. I’ll be right back.” Mike left, shutting the door behind him and leaving Evan to his state of utter disbelief. In his mind, the prospective new employee could only be one of two people, and odds were he wouldn’t be wearing a white suit.
Within five minutes, his suspicions were confirmed. Mike walked back in, followed by Richard Cade. Evan regained his composure and stood to greet him. “Mr. Cade, pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise,” was Richard’s reply. They shook hands.
“You guys know each other?” Mike asked.
“Richard teaches Sunday School and Junior Church at my church, for…how long, Richard?”
“Three years,” he answered, a look of vague recognition spreading across his face. “I thought I’d seen you somewhere before.”
“Most likely from the Washington Inn Steakhouse last Saturday. If I remember correctly, you and your wife were seated right behind me.”
“That’s it!” Richard exclaimed. “The only people I usually recognize from church are the kids I teach and their parents.”
“Well, it is a small world, isn’t it?” Mike interjected. “Why don’t you have a seat, Richard, and we’ll get started.” They all sat down, and Mike handed Richard’s application and resumé to Evan.
This was all too weird to just be coincidence. Given all he’d seen and heard in the past day and a half, not hiring this man would be tantamount to disobeying a direct command from God Himself. Mike, however, wasn’t likely to understand that, and Evan doubted Richard would entirely, either. There were still motions to go through, though.
He scanned through both documents. His employer, the Hart Accounting Firm, only had one opening in data entry, which Mr. Cade was vastly overqualified for. Why God would want to move him from his current job for Edward Jones Investments was impossible to tell. Still, Evan had to start somewhere.
“So, Richard. What brings you here? It looks here like coming to us would be a step backwards for you.” Evan reached for the open, chilled bottle of water and awaited an answer he hoped would make sense.
“Mostly, I’ve just been looking for a change. New people to work with, new challenges, different opportunities.”
“Why us, specifically?” Mike asked.
My question exactly, Evan thought, smiling. Come on, Richard, just give me a name.
“You, know, I’m not really sure. I’ve been submitting resumés for a couple months to all the companies in this area that are in my field. It never occurred to me to look anywhere else. Then, Saturday night, when my wife and I went out to eat, it just came to me.”
“Just came to you?” All of a sudden, despite holding a cold bottle of water in it, Evan’s hand was starting to sweat.
“Yeah, my wife had gotten up to use the ladies’ room, so I used the time to just say a quick prayer about my job hunt. Almost immediately, the name Hart Accounting Firm popped into my head, and I knew this was the place I needed to…” He stopped and looked at Evan. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, buddy,” Mike added. “You’re shaking.”
Evan looked down at his arms and hands, and indeed he was, not exaggeratedly, but enough to be noticed. His breathing had shallowed, too. “No,” he finally replied, and stood, with no small effort. “I’ll be right back,” he added, and went to his office door.
“Anything you need me to do?” Mike asked.
“Just…” Evan paused, fighting to keep his head clear, “continue without me. I just need to get some fresh air.”
Two minutes later, Evan made it outside and finally started to breathe normally. He had had daydreams before. He had had dreams that had seemed half real. What he had heard and seen Saturday, however, was as real as anything he’d ever experienced. It was still clear, still vivid in his memory.
“What Richard had described to him, though, ran completely contrary to that. It didn’t make sense, not that it had to begin with, and it had caught him so off guard, it had practically sent him into shock.
“Lord, help me, please,” he prayed aloud as people walked by, giving him a mixture of strange and concerned looks as they passed. “What is going on here?”
Then, just as quickly as the panic attack had started, Evan felt a wave of calm rush over him. There wasn’t really any reason to be this out of sorts. The universe would continue unhindered whether or not he figured out the logic behind all this. He took a deep breath and headed back inside. He would try to solve this mystery, of course, but it was not going to upset his life.
Mike was nearly finished when Evan walked back in. They turned to him. “Feeling better?” Mike asked.
“Yeah. Just needed some fresh air.”
“You looked like you’d seen a ghost or something.”
Evan just smiled wryly and turned to the other man. “Any questions, Richard?”
“Not really. Mike here ran through everything rather well.”
Evan started to thank him for his time, but reconsidered. “Mike, what time is our other interview, today?”
“One o’clock.”
“I’d like to have a few minutes alone with Richard. Talk some church shop.”
“Sure, I’ll see you after lunch, then.” He stood and walked to the door. “Need anything?”
“N—actually, now that you mention it, there is. You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who works here or hangs around the building that wears a white suit and hat, would you?”
“No one in particular. Why?”
“Just someone I’m trying to track down. If you see someone like that, let me know.”
“Will do,” Mike said, looking somewhat confused, then left.
Evan turned his attention back to Richard. “Did Mike ask you how you knew we had an opening?”
“No, sir,” Richard answered.
“And the man I described to him just now doesn’t ring a bell for you, either, I assume.”
“Not really, no.” By the confused look on Richard’s face, he was no doubt wondering where this was heading. Join the club, Evan thought.
“Not much of a description, though,” Richard added. “I’m sure I’ve seen plenty of guys in white suits before.”
This was true enough, but Evan wasn’t satisfied. “This guy you should remember, though. I watched him sit down right across from you Saturday and have a conversation with you about your job search.”
The confusion on Richard’s face doubled. “No, no one but my wife sat down with me there. I would have remembered otherwise.”
“My point exactly. I even heard you tell him you’d been praying for four months before you started physically looking for another job. Is that accurate?”
“Yes, but I was probably just praying aloud. I tend to do that sometimes, even in public. Sometimes I’ll even alternate between spoken and silent prayer in the same prayer. Drives Elizabeth crazy.” He laughed nervously.
“Well, Richard,” Evan said, switching gears as he realized this line of questions was going to be unprofitable. “Either way, it seems clear enough to me that the Lord has directed you here, and that, in my mind, is reason enough to hire you. In all fairness, though, we do have a few more interviews to do this week before we can make any official decisions.”
“That’s fair enough.”
“In the mean time, we’ll keep all this on file and give you a call when we know for sure.”
“Great,” Richard said, shaking Evan’s hand as they stood. “I appreciate it.”
“See you Wednesday night.”
“I’ll be there. Thanks. Sorry I couldn’t help with that guy.”
“Don’t worry about it. Take care.”
“You, too.”
Evan watched him leave and close the door behind him. This is beyond insane. Despite his best efforts, Evan knew he was not going to be allowed to forget about it and just let it go away. He had to do something, but figuring out what and doing it before those around him decided to institutionalize him, that was the tough part.