Deliver Me From Evil Series

Inspirational Short Story by Judy Washington

Thank God for a good education.  Our first break came and I went home for the weekend.   I invited a girlfriend to stay at our house.  That was something never heard of before, but what mommy could say, “Take her home!” she lived hours away.  We started out the weekend with a great barbecue and the movies.  My beau brought along a friend to keep my girlfriend company.

We found an empty lot that had sat unattended for so long that it was riddled with vines and trees.  And in the midst of this lot was an abandon car.  We played around, chasing down each other, like cats and mice all the way to the car.  It was an old Chevy coup De ville painted canary yellow, with the trunk lifted open.

The contents were an old tire and its jack lay up inside.  That’s when a former beau walked past the field; it was a common short cut in this neighborhood.  The former beau waved as the new beau watched bitterly.  He became furious, I couldn’t understand why, we argued, and before I knew it he was trying to stuff me in the trunk of the abandon car.  I grabbed the jack from atop of the tire and swung it with all the strength I could gather.  I can’t even recall who beat whom, –but needless to say the fight ended in a truce.  We went on as if nothing had even transpired and we returned to the campus, happy and in lust.

Later the same month, I got a phone call from a good friend; he lived on campus, and was studying to become a minister.  He had been witnessing me about the love of Christ for several months on end.  He called to invite me to his apartment for his birthday party.  But when I told my beau I was going he insisted that I stayed.  That was it, relationship over, and I told him to be gone by the time I returned.  I got dressed and ran on.  When I arrived at the apartment no one else was there, just me and my friend.  He sat me down, and for the first time ever, someone cared enough to confront me about my lifestyle.

He warned me to change before something bad happened to me, too late.  I cried like a newborn baby anyhow.  I knew I needed to change.  He prayed for me and I left.  When I arrived at my room, I noticed my beau was gone, “Praise God,” I whispered.  Just then the door to my armoire swung open, he had hid himself in there, waiting for me to return.  He lunged at me with a pair of shearing scissors; that I used to sew with.

We fought viciously, rolling back in forth on the bed; determined to survive, I held his stabbing arm with both hands. He was pulling at my forearm trying to force me to release my hold on him. I thought I was going to die.  My thoughts traveled to my father, who was at home, dying of cancer.  I reached to my nightstand and grabbed my favorite coffee mug; it was large, and cumbersome.

I swung it with all my might; it was a full contact blow, right across the frame of his left eye, catching the bridge of his jaw.  He was dazed. I ran down a flight of stairs hysterical trying to get help.  I screamed while pounding my fist against the cold steel emergency door.

Finally, what felt like forever, and was probably only seconds, a friend saw me through the window.  I was standing there crying and terrified.  She swung open the door and we had barely pushed it closed before we saw him, looming over us through the glass.  His face was swollen and bruised but not as bruised as his ego, he was enraged, threatening to kill me, demanding that I faced him.  Someone called security, he was removed from campus.

That night, she was my saving grace.  There was one time after that incident that he returned to the campus, he had searched for me across the yard, but no one would tell him where I had moved to, rumors had it that he was carrying a loaded gun that day.  Eventually, I lost all contact.

Tune in next month for the continuation of  “Deliver Me From Evil” Series.

Judy Washington, Spiritual Counseling Director and Co-founder of the Christian Counseling and Wellness Center for Women, has over 20 years of experience in mental health counseling, counselor training and consulting. Her teaching and interests include life structuring, career and education counseling, spirituality and mental health, integrated with prolific teachings based in theology and spirituality.