EVERYONE WINS in the Rabble Preorder Campaign & Giveaway

Receive the first 13 chapters of Rabble (book 2 of the Cosmic Conspiracy) AND a 50% off coupon for Babble (book 1) just for entering. When you enter the giveaway, you’ll automatically receive the option to download the excerpt and start reading right away. You’ll also be entered in a drawing for a Rabble t-shirt, mug, and autographed copy of the book.

 

 

But no need to wait. Here is the next installment of Babble

One young boy is the key to the universe.

Babble is the story of Bobbie Cagle — a teenage misdiagnosed autistic boy who is the first human to leap into a brave new world of consciousness — an evolutionary leap as great as the first fish that crawled from the sea onto land.

But unfortunately, everyone wants Bobbie for their own purposes.

Installment #2

She still remembered how excited Brian and she had been over the arrival of their baby boy. They both couldn’t stop smiling for days after the delivery. In fact, the whole Charismatic Christian Church community was ecstatic by the arrival of the Cagles’ bundle of joy. Everyone who’d seen Bobbie in those first few weeks said he looked just like his mother, even though he had dark brown, oval eyes while Angie’s were blue and almond-shaped, and his head full of black curls contrasted with her light brown waves. Angie was proud of her high cheekbones while Bobbie’s cheeks looked more like a squirrel preparing for winter. Okay, they both had cute upturned noses, but thankfully Bobbie’s nose was missing the bump that Angie often dreamed of having removed by a plastic surgeon. And then there was Bobbie’s smell, which Angie could simply not get enough of—sweet, intoxicating, and unmistakable even if she couldn’t quite describe it to anyone else. It was like art. She knew it when she saw it, or in this case when she smelled it. Still, Angie smiled politely every time the comparison was made; an automatic response learned years ago when she first met Brian and was invited into his Charismatic Christian community.

Love is rarely logical so there’s really no reason to expect one’s actions to be logical, especially as it pertained to falling in love. Angie and Brian were an unlikely match in many ways, but they’d worked hard to make it work, and she’d convinced herself that their mutual interest in having kids would smooth out the differences. It hadn’t.

Assuring herself that her son was dry and comfortable, she walked over to the chest of drawers to dress for the day. She picked out a pair of her favorite faded blue jeans and a light blue tank top to match. She opened the top drawer and scrounged through the scarves until she found the one Brian had given her during their first six months of dating. Also faded from being washed so many times, it was still one of her favorites. As she tied it in her hair, she mused that it had survived the test of time better than their relationship. Though faded, it still worked to keep the hair out of her eyes. She wasn’t so sure she could say the same about their relationship, though they both kept trying to make it work.

She turned around and perused the line of shoes, and as she often did, selected the worn pair of flip-flops. She wasn’t planning on going anywhere today. Why not be comfortable at least with what she wore. Being comfortable with herself had grown increasingly difficult. It seemed like no matter how hard she tried to make her marriage work there were just too many differences—differences that had been exacerbated with the arrival of Bobbie rather than lessened, especially since the recent claim the minister’s wife had made about her son. Everyone else in the community, including Brian, thought it a miracle from God, but she simply couldn’t buy it. She wasn’t prepared to drink the Charismatic Kool-Aid to that degree; not when it came to her only child.

At first, Angie and Brian had tried to convince themselves that he was just struggling to say “Da-Da,” or “Ma-Ma.” Even though none of his utterings sounded the least bit like baby talk, they weren’t overly concerned. After all, everything else seemed to be developing at a normal or even slightly above the normal rate. He started rolling over on his stomach at six months and responded to his name shortly thereafter. But around nine months his normal baby talk began to have the cadence of complete sentences but none of the words were intelligible to either parent. In fact, no one in the community had ever heard such babble. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, Brian finally confessed to Angie after being confronted by Emily Kilpatrick, the much younger wife of Pastor John Kilpatrick, during one of her frequent visits to their home.

“Why, Brian, this is truly a miracle from God, don’t you know?” Emily said as she gazed at Bobbie in his crib with a look of awe mixed with a tinge of fear. “You know what he’s doing, don’t you? You’ve heard it before. I know you have. You were there on that miraculous night when your great aunt was touched by the hand of God.” She clasped her hands together for emphasis.

“What is she talking about?” Angie asked as she walked into the living room with a tray of mismatched mugs, the coffee threatening to slosh all over the hardwood floor.

Brian smiled nervously at his wife, then back to Emily. “Yes, I was there, but I don’t know that this is the same…”

“…Well, you know it is, sweetie,” Emily interrupted, as was her custom whenever she was excited, which was most of the time. She fairly bounced up and down on the overstuffed couch with each word. “It’s nothing to be afraid of, honey. The Lord has simply chosen your son earlier than usual. I say hallelujah to that.”

“Brian, what is she talking about?” Emily asked again, this time emphatically demanding an answer.

“She’s suggesting that Bobbie might be speaking in tongues,” he replied. He coughed nervously as he picked up his coffee mug and blew upon it to cool the liquid.

“What in the…?” Angie stopped herself with a nervous glance at their pastor’s wife. “I mean, what are you talking about?”

“Well, the technical name for it is Glossolalia,” Brian replied, knowing his wife would want to know such scientific information. “Many Charismatics consider it sacred language.”

“Oh Lord, honey. Listen to you go on with those fifty-cent words. Of course, it’s a sacred language. Your son has been touched by the hand of God and here you go doubting it. I can’t wait to tell Pastor John about this. He’ll be so pleased.” She shook her head and the perfectly formed ringlets that reminded Angie of Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind twisted around her goose-like neck.

“Ahh, I wish you wouldn’t say anything,” Brian said as he walked over to the crib and picked up his son. “Least not until we know more.”

“Oh sure, I understand,” Emily replied. “But it’s not something to be ashamed of, dear. It’s something to celebrate.” She took a sip of coffee, then placed the mug back on the tray. “Well, I need to run. I have several other families to visit before prayer meeting tonight.” She bounced off the sofa and over to Brian and Angie, giving them both rapid-fire pecks on each cheek.

“Sit and enjoy your coffee and the blessings of your new son. I know the way out.” And with that, she was gone.

After she’d left, Angie and Brian stared at each other. “She’s going to tell, isn’t she?” Angie finally asked.

“Oh yeah, you can count on it. By this time tomorrow, everyone will know. Shoot, I wouldn’t be surprised if the three major news channels weren’t sitting on our doorstep by morning.”

Brian walked over to the crib where Bobbie lay now quietly sleeping. “That would have been a good time to keep your special gift to yourself,” he said as he gently rubbed the young boy’s head.

 

As Angie strolled into the bathroom, she finished tying the blue scarf around her head, then gazed into the mirror to be sure it was on straight. She studied her face. Had those crow’s-feet at the corner of her eyes grown more pronounced? She started to reach for her makeup kit but thought better of it. Save it for later if she decided to go out shopping. The bottle of foundation was almost empty anyway, so there was no point in using the last of it if no one was going to see her.

“Girl, your looker days are in the past,” she muttered to herself in a soft voice a few of her close friends referred to as angelic. She didn’t feel much like an angel these days, now that she’d made the decision to help her son. She recalled one of her father’s favorite sayings, “Trust in God and tie your camel.”

“Well, I’ll let Brian take care of the trusting-in-God part,” she told the young woman in the mirror. “I’ve never been much for blind faith. Time to get some answers.”

Stay tuned for part #3 next Friday or jump ahead by joining the Rabble Preorder & Giveaway.

EVERYONE WINS in the Rabble Preorder Campaign & Giveaway

Receive the first 13 chapters of Rabble (book 2 of the Cosmic Conspiracy) AND a 50% off coupon for Babble (book 1) just for entering. When you enter the giveaway, you’ll automatically receive the option to download the excerpt and start reading right away. You’ll also be entered in a drawing for a Rabble t-shirt, mug, and autographed copy of the book.