<°)))><

Aaron walked up the concrete steps. He remembered the first time he saw Churchie here, and his comment, ‘You deaf or something.’ The memory brought a smile to Aaron’s face. Funny thing was, he was a little deaf thanks to his Afghanistan experience.

“Aaron, my mate,” Churchie called. He sat on a concrete bench just outside the main entrance to the church. “You’ve come to set your ways right?”

“You’re cheeky, Churchie. Where’s the Rev?”

“Follow me.”

They walked into an area with a large kitchen bench. The Rev came over and gave Aaron a hug. He pointed to the couch. Aaron made myself comfortable and felt a bit nervous. He wondered why he felt that way. Churchie sat on a chair near the window.

The Rev came and sat. “How are you, Aaron?”

“Good, Rev, recovering, like all of us . . . I’ve just got to deal with my dad issue and the Mackenzie issue, and I’ll be as right as rain.”

“What’s the dad issue?”

“Justice . . . that Lucas fellow had something to do with my dad’s death. And he’s still out there somewhere.”

“What about Windsor and that Starkey bloke? The one that bolted?”

“Good point. I think their involvement was indirect. With Lucas it was a personal thing, we crossed each other’s paths. He made it personal by involving Mackenzie.”

“That’s right. I’d forgotten that. What’s the issue with Mackenzie?”

“Something called ‘unequally yoked’.” Aaron looked around the room as the Rev flipped through a notebook.

“Well I will try and help you understand what’s she’s saying, Aaron,” the Rev said. “Do you like music, Aaron?”

“I do.”

“I’m sure you have heard of that famous song Highway to Hell.”

“Yep.”

“I heard the song recently and it made me think about a highway the Bible talks about. It refers to a highway to holiness and says that the unclean will not walk on it. So when I hear that song, Highway to Hell, I feel quite sad because many are on that highway. The unclean cannot enter God’s highway—they are on the highway to hell.”

Aaron wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing, being here. He still wasn’t really into this Bible talk stuff, but he was doing it for Mackenzie. “Unclean, meaning dirty people . . . sorry Rev, but this is where I get a bit lost. It’s like the Bible is written for another age. Who would say ‘unclean’ these days?”

“Good point, Aaron. Unclean refers to sin. But then sin isn’t a fashionable word these days, either.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Not at all . . . let me tell you what we’re going to cover with these little chats. I’m going to walk you down what’s known as the Roman Road.”

“Highways . . . roads . . . I look forward to this.”

“Sounds like you don’t know much about the Bible, Aaron?”

“No, not really . . . I have heard people quote from it, and I did do a stint at Sunday School and remember some of the stories, but that’s about it.”

Aaron watched as the Rev picked up a Bible and started flicking through the pages. “Well, here’s a quick description for you. The Bible is made up of sixty-six books, two major parts known as the Old Testament, which has thirty-nine books, and the New Testament, which has twenty-seven books. We believe the Bible is the word of God, where God has inspired or instilled his words into the heart or mind of the writers.”

“Learned something already, didn’t know any of that.”

“Good. I could go into a lot more but I won’t for now except that the navigation system used for the books of the bible is chapter and verses. The Roman Road, which I mentioned before, are a number of verses from the book of Romans. Romans was written by a man called Paul, who wrote a number of letters to the early churches.”

“Okay. Hit me.”

The Rev handed Aaron and Churchie a piece of paper. It had written on it:

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

“So we’re back to that sin word. It is indeed an old-fashioned word—modern society would be more familiar with the word ‘crime’.”

“Now I have heard of that one.”

“Sin is the cause of most crimes. But it even goes further, into all facets of our lives; our relationships, our thoughts. Sin is all about missing a target, a standard that has been set by God. As the verse says, we have fallen short of God’s glory, the way he wanted us to live.”

“For all have sinned, Aaron . . .” said Churchie, “that’s the thing that hit me, it hit me hard. I realised I was a sinner and sensed that I wasn’t right with God and needed to do something about it. And with those angels hanging around, I knew this was serious stuff.”

Aaron had to agree with Churchie but thought that seeing angels was a big advantage. Aaron started pondering his condition.

“Another thing with sin, Aaron, is that there aren't different categories for sins. There are no little sins and big sins, just one sin and you’re stained. And that little sin could have been a little white lie to your mother when you were five years old.”

Aaron smiled. He was stained. He thought of Mel’s joke. Repaint and thin no more—it made a bit more sense now.

The Rev continued. “I’ll tell you this now, it will make sense later. The blood of Jesus covers your sins. We need to be covered by the blood of Jesus.”

Some words penetrate deeply. These words did, and for good reason.

Chapter 31

THE HINTERLAND PROPERTY HAD a sunroom attached to the rear of the house. Lucas was seated on a wicker sofa, taking a deep drag on the glass pipe. He waited for the effects to kick in, for his mind to relax; it came not long after. But it wasn’t all good: his thoughts went everywhere, and for a crazy moment he wondered who he was talking to in his head. He would talk aloud to something but get no response. His mate referred to it as a spirit of madness.

But then, as always, after his mind storm ended, his thoughts would focus on the girl, on Mackenzie. He turned as expecting to see her sitting on the sofa next to him. He stored many memories from the property, he had watched her on the monitor, her every movement. He knew where she worked. That’s how he got her the first time—that was an accident but it turned out okay. He knew her path to work. She had always followed the same routine. Did she change it after what happened?

He laughed—he now had the technology. But he couldn’t think of anything to do with it.

The drugs were working now. He was tuned into his surroundings, and his heartbeat was so loud, he looked down to his chest expecting to see his chest pushing out with each beat. The magnified sound of plastic door strips rubbing against each other made him turn. Tag entered the sunroom.

He looked up at Tag. Lucas thought he saw someone, something, standing beside Tag, but he shook his head and it was no longer there.

“Why the shake of the head, Lucas . . . you’re not stoned, are you?”

“Nah . . . just relaxed. Whatcha up to?”

“Just got off the phone to my sister. She said she’ll be back in three to four weeks. Hoped we were looking after the place and that you hadn’t pinched all her dope. She also said we’re welcome to stay longer after she returned. I think she likes you, Lucas.”