Participants:
| Scene Title | God Has Plans |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Abigail gets the nerve to call up her parents and talk. She's a daddy's girl through and through and it takes him saying some things for her to finally accept them. |
| Date | June 14, 2009 |
Digital Communications Lines
There's a blessing in being in the same time zone as ones parents. There's no need to count hours back or forward and worry that you might be calling too late. Or in this case, too early. With house guests, and it being a Sunday and knowing she'll be gone till likely past lunch, she's up at the crack of dawn, starting to make lunch for her guests, then settle into breakfast. Seeing that everyone is squared away in rooms, Claire and Niki, She's not worried about making noises. Deckard hadn't resurfaced except for a phone call. Eileen was safe.
The phone is in her hand for a different reason entirely as She sets elbow noodles to boiling in some water and dials her parents place. Crack of dawn there. Her father and mother will be puttering around the kitchen as well. So far from home, she still keeps their schedule they raised her with.
Three rings, and the phone's picked up on the other end. In the background there's the sound of sizzling bacon on the pan, and she can probably almost smell the breakfast being stewed up by her mother. It's Dean's deep voice that comes on the line, though, warm and hearty. "Peace be with you, an' good morning."
"Peace be with you as well Dah" Her drawl deepens just from the contact over the digital lines to back home. "Back bacon or is momma sizzling up the maple bacon?"
"Maple," Dean replies, his voice raising in warmth, "Wish you were here to enjoy it with us, pumpkin. Jus' checking on on the old folks, or somethin' I can do for you? Everything all right in that city've yours?"
"Just wanting to talk. Needed something but that can wait, give momma a kiss for me before we start talking though, tell her I love her"
"Sure thing." A step away from the phone, and the sound of a light kiss and some conversation with her mother before he returns to the phone - audible is a call in the background, "Love you too!" Then Dean returns, "We love you too, Abigail."
"Lordy but I wanna be there sitting at the table. I'm about to make breakfast here soon for my guest fore I head to church" The flame turned down a bit for the macaroni ground beef long since browned and all the stuff for the casserole ready to be combined and shoved in the oven. She was going to be making bacon soon enough here too. "School started. I'm busy busy. So many classes Dah, but they're going good. Just need these and then i'll be putting in at the EMT school and I'll be out on the ambulances with others"
"Well, that's great to hear," Dean replies enthusiastically, "Ah'm glad to know you're followin' up on that. Hah, maybe you should go all the way, your ma'd be tickled to have a doctor in the family."
"I don't have the money or the mind for that Dah. I'd be forty by the time I came outta school. Maybe a nurse" She smiles though, imagining how puffed chest proud her mother would be. "I got a question Dah. I need to get a car. Well, don't need. But school is way on the other side of the island and I dun want to move. Scooter's not bad for getting there, but on rainy days I gotta take the bus. Do you think you and momma could help with getting an old second hand or third hand car? Something cheap"
"Ah'm sure we could… take a collection, or somethin', for schoolin'," Dean ventures, though even he sounds uncertain about that, "And you've the mind for anythin' you put your mind to, baby girl, don't let anybody tell you different. A car, though? I'm sure we can scrounge up some money for that, Abigail, wouldn't be nothin'."
They're sure, but she's.. she COULD. IF god doesn't give her back her gift, the one barrier to her having even done as Conrad told her, was that she got called out all the time. "I could get another scholarship I'm sure Dah, for it." There's a pause though, that hesitation that he knows so well. "Momma near if so, can you take the phone outside?" It's something she wants to share with her father only, for now. Better to have one parent disappointed with her than two.
A long moment's silence follows that request. Then there's the sound of the back door clacking shut, and the usual outdoor sounds. "Alright, Abigail," he ventures warily, "Ah'm outside. This have to do with that… Logan… person?"
"No Dah" When he finally speaks again. She herself moves, away from the kitchen and to sit on the couch where Scarlett has curled up. "Dah.. Someone attacked me and a friend. His gift, is to switch other people's gifts. He took god's gift and gave it to my friend" A pause. "Dah, he gave it to flint, and left me with nothing"
"What… he…" There's shock in his voice, everything he believes sent into a tailspin— or, at least what he believes about her ability, "Can that happen— what— ah heard on the news something about a cure, but I didn't believe— " A pause. "Flint?" The drunk rude bastard?
"It's got nothing to do with the news Dah, not… not that news" She was relying on her father to keep it together. "Flint. He's.. he's been helping people, best I know. Not many, but, he is. He's lost his. He could see through walls and the like. But I can't, we don't know what happened. Just.. he has it now" So yes, dad, it could happen. "Three weeks ago"
There's a bit of silence, and then he says quietly, "Ah'm sorry, Abigail. Maybe— maybe it was God's will. A test, p'rhaps, as Job was given." He has to believe that. It was God's gift, after all, wasn't it?
"I know Dah. Or maybe he's mad at me. I don't know. I'm.. trying to get back to him, get back to being a goodly christian girl Dah. I think you were right that night Dah. That I was forgetting where I came from. That I was loosing myself here in modern Babylon" She reaches over to scratch at Scarlett. "I quit my job. My scholarship is enough to cover school, books, rent and food. I'm gonna see about maybe a job closer to school for a few hours for some spending money, or maybe go back to working at the diner"
"Do you think Dah maybe.. maybe I've done what he wanted? What he needed me to do and that's it? He has no more for me to do?" She wants to believe it, but Coren laying propped up on his hospital bed, hurt, she couldn't imagine that.
He doesn't interrupt her, letting her speak even as he thinks— trying to rationalize this himself, somehow. Finally, he says quietly, "Ah have a notion, p'rhaps. Maybe he meant for it to be passed on to your… friend… so that he could learn to give, an' be charitable of himself. To lead him down God's path once more. He certainly needs something to guide him the right way."
'But why did he take it from me Dah?" a hint of whine in her voice. "I've been a good woman. Maybe I've strayed, but I have faith with all my heart even in the moments when others have let it gutter out, and turn away from him. Why give him.. my gift"
"Maybe He didn't think that you needed it anymore, baby girl," he says gently, "Maybe He thought that you could help people without it."
"But I do need it" The deposed healer whispers, so quietly into the phone. "I didn't know I did Dah… until I lost it"
"You don't, Abigail," her father says gently, "You've always been the most carin' soul ah've ever known. You do more to help people than you think. It wasn't your power that made you defy your own parents to go out where you thought you were needed, just to help people."
At some point, with so many people saying it, it'll get through her thick southern skull that they're right. It's starting o, filter through a crack now that her father is saying it. "It was a big part of it. It's just.. it's hard Dah. Sometimes it feels so hard and like He doesn't love me. And I see flint and he's wasting away and he's… he showed up Dah, looking for a safe place to stay, oh Dah, he slept all day and he ate ..everything// I put in front of him. It's gonna kill him Dah. I'm afraid it's going to kill him"
"Then it sounds like you're helping him, at least," Dean says in a soft voice, "An' while ah might not approve of him — maybe that's what God wants. Ah know it can be hard, Abigail. Just think of this as a test of faith."
"Pastor Sumter said that too" There's a soft sigh he's heard all her childhood. The one that means she doesn't like it, but she understands. "Made me cookies dah. He's trying to cheer me up. He put em by my seat when I come in to pray. You can, you can tell momma if you like, or not" She didn't know how her mother would take it
"Ah think your mother's got enough on her mind with you in that city to begin with," her father sighs, "Ah'll keep it off the table for now. Maybe things'll change."
"Maybe" Abigail glances towards the hallway at the sounds of shuffling from one of the rooms. "Do you think he can.. do good Dah? Flint? That god has a reason for him having it now? What lesson could possibly in it?" Other than to teach shove the two of them together and try to help each other whereas before they shuffled and circled around each other.
"Ah have to believe that," Dean says faithfully, "God has a plan, darlin'. In the end, it'll all go to the right."
"God has a plan" He always has a plan. It's not always a good plan. "I should let you go before momma comes out to bat your ears and drag you in by them for breakfast. Pancakes or is she making eggs and grits?"
"Eggs'n grits, this morning… and you're about due to visit us when you have a chance, baby girl," Dean drawls, trying to sound upbeat and encouraging, "Ah hope you do sometime. So how's things aside from — that?"
"I have a pilot, who promised that I could fly down, to visit, when I wanted it" Abigail promises. "Maybe soon, I'll come" How are things, aside from that. "Things are.. they're good Dah. Pastor Sumter was having problems with his gift. God kept giving them to him, instead of the other way 'round, but it got sorted out. Raquelle and I helped take care of him. There were some folks who done defaced his church, but we got people off the street and friends, and I called in favors, to help get the church cleaned. There's a group of folks who don't like that the Guiding Light openly accepts gifted people, but that's their fault, not the churches. So much hate Dah. there's so much Hate it hurts sometimes"
"Godless heathens," grunts Dean, "At least the community rallied 'round him. Good heart, that man."
"Blessed heart" Abigail affirms. "Man deserves all things good from God" There's even more sounds from the hallway and Abigail shifts up off the couch. "I gotta go Dah. Guests are waking up. I need to make them breakfast before I head to service. Wanna get there early so I can spend some time in prayer. Tell momma I love her?" Again. "I think we have a week off of school next month or something like that. I'll talk to the pilot and see about coming home, for real this time. Even if I have to have twenty people walk me to the airport Dah. Will take God himself to stop me from getting home to y'all"
"Ah will do, baby girl. You be careful, alright? Just because God gave that man a chance doesn't mean he'll take it," Dean notes, "An' there's still a lot of bad people in that city. Keep in touch. We love you."
"He wouldn't hurt me Dah. Flint wouldn't hurt me" Not purposefully. That's for sure. "I'll call again. I'll pray for momma and you, I love you" In case he doubted it. "Have same grits for me" and with that, Abigail thumbs the off button on the phone, looking over at her cat. "He has a plan" She gives a ghost of a smile. "And I have … the best parents in the world Scarlett. Lets get you some Tuna"